There’s a brewing event in the West prior to the time of the Sydney festival, and you’re likely to require dance shoes – read our tips for getting the top of Parramatta.
The flags are flying, and lines are beginning to form in anticipation of the Sydney Festival getting underway on a high note on Thursday. Some of the most delicious options can be found in Parramatta. Here are six great reasons why the West is the best.
Parramatta is a party animal.
Parramatta begins its festival on Friday night with a soulful party to open the festival. Paul Kelly headlines with his latest project, The Merri Soul Sessions, which brings the talents of Clairy Browne Vika as well as Linda Bull, Dan Sultan, and Kira Puru to perform a huge jam session that will feature the songs they worked on in 2014. Christine Salem performs her powerful maloya music, the percussion-based, politically-influenced version of music that is rooted in the story of African slavery. It features the lively storytelling of Indigenous singer Radical Son and the folky sounds from All Our Exes Live in Texas and the one-person band The Uptown Brown! And a block event hosted by the DJ/dance group Soul in Sydney. They are bound to dance on the streets.
There are caterpillars (and the caterpillar is starving) The Very Hungry Caterpillar is among the most loved children’s literature and is still a delight to new readers as well as those who first fell in love with it more than 45 years earlier. The book was written and drawn by Eric Carle. The book’s instantly recognizable, New York’s Puppet Kitchen transforms collaged characters. It was designed by Jonathan Worsley and directed by Naomi Edwards; this production also presents three stories from Carle’s collection, which include Mr. Seahorse, The Very The Lonely Firefly, and the artist who painted a Blue Horse. In total, 75 puppets bring the magic of Carle’s stories to delight the minds of Sydneysiders, young and old alike.
Tex Perkins takes (no) prisoners. Enjoy a night in the jail in the company of Tex Perkins as the singer embodies Johnny Cash’s legendary Folsom Prison concert that he performed in the year 1968. There’s something unique about abandoned spaces. Parramatta prison has a long history in which your imagination can go free, with empty cells still holding ghostly evidence of its earlier existence. In the old exercise yard, Perkins will be joined by Rachael Tidd, who sings the songs that Johnny’s wife June. The show tells the story of Cash’s remarkable life as well as the monumental prison shows he gave from 1959 to 1973, along with the musical style that made Cash among the world’s most famous artists in the 20th century. Century.
Room for dead wood? Not in Parramatta Acrobats, dancers mus, Asians, and a former champion of skiing from Cirque Alfonse. Founded in 2005, the group’s members have trained in some of the best circus companies around the world and are now based in the small town of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in Quebec. Their latest performance, “Timber! Stars lumberjacks, farmers, loggers, and loggers who perform physically demanding acrobatics, bluegrass jams, and dance. The three generations that make up the family are told an acrobatic tale based on the work of forestry that takes its place in their land, utilizing the tools and elements of the landscape to inspire the design of their unique acrobatics equipment as well as the authenticity that the show has.
No egos either. Punch them. Legs on the Wall and Western Sydney’s Form Dance Projects present this original production that utilizes a vast range of choreographic styles that examine the different rituals associated with relationship and courtship as well as young love. Patrick Nolan directs the show; the show will put the audience at the center of the stage as the dancers in the group explore the ways that dance can help people communicate, regardless of whether they are in a ballroom or mosh-pit. The show is presented by a dance group of 12 who are led by Australian performers Kristina Chan and Joshua Thomson, with choreography by Kathryn Puie. They dance to music composed by Stefan Gregory, sung by the 30 voices of the VOX Sydney Philharmonia choir, and with percussion from Bree Van Reyk.
