Planning for summer in Sydney has begun in earnest with the unveiling of the 2027 Sydney Festival, which includes the waynapuni pools public bathhouse, an outdoor installation of old cars transformed into saunas, cold plunges and spas, free for public use in Barangaroo Reserve from January 7 to 25. The installation is designed by industrial designer Benjamin Paul, working with First Nations teenagers.
Announcing his second festival, Nelson framed the program through the prism of summer beach reading. "It's equal parts fluff, pulp and big heavy reads, and there's something about that in a summer program that I want," he said. "I want a frothy fun party or a great gig night, as much as I want something that is like the long read."
The festival's biggest dance offering is Dance Reflections, an international program overseen by former New York City Ballet dancer Serge Laurent and backed by French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels. In its 10th iteration in Sydney, it presents 13 shows across venues around the city plus a dozen workshops at Sydney Dance Company. Highlights include French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane's aerial work, in which 20 dancers and four extreme sports athletes will be suspended by tightropes at the Cutaway in Barangaroo, and a collaboration between Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Morocco's Radouan Mriziga reimagining Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at Carriageworks. Trisha Brown's company will perform Roof Piece at the Art Gallery of NSW.
The closest the program comes to explicit political commentary is Irish company Dead Centre's transformation of Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky's poetry into a contemporary drama in which a soldier shoots a deaf boy who cannot hear his orders, and the next day the townspeople are deaf. "It's heavy and it's beautiful. It's an allegory, a protest," Nelson said.
The program includes the world premiere of Ngurragabu, a work from Australia's pan-national First Nations dance company Marrugeku that explores an environmental apocalypse, performed within a monumental mangrove forest devised by visual artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah. Laurent was non-committal about whether the work would be included in future international Dance Reflections programs. "With artists you have to know each other, it's a story each time," he said. Marrugeku co-director Dalisa Pigram said ancient saltwater knowledge systems had much to offer as the world contemplates melting ice caps and increased precipitation, describing a choreographic approach "inspired by what moves the dancer" rather than imposed from the front.
Elsewhere, comedian Hannah Gadsby will present a new show, American clown Spencer Novich features, and free dance event The Party will be staged at the Cutaway. The expanded Blak Out strand adds a music series, Black and Blues, at the Metro Theatre, in which Budjerah will channel Donny Hathaway, MO'JU will conjure the music of Bill Withers and SOLCHLD will celebrate Etta James. An exhibition of paintings by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, drawn largely from private Sydney collections, will be at S. H. Ervin Gallery, and Wiradjuri Yuin actor Angeline Penrith returns for a third year with Redfern Renaissance, performances and discussions about the National Black Theatre of the 1970s.
The festival has a history of public spectacle, from a Haymarket arts and crafts market at the first event in 1977 to a 12-hour rockathon at the Sydney Entertainment Centre a decade later and the Festival First Night celebrations from 2008 to 2012, which drew 250,000 people during the global financial crisis. Tickets for the 2027 festival go on sale Thursday, October 22 at sydneyfestival.org.au.