Sydney Festival 2007
If in the past couple of weeks you think you heard the whooshing sound of Irish mist around Sydney, it was actually the noise of festival ticket sales racing through the system and out to customers.
For reasons that currently defy science and ordinary understanding, Sydney Festival 2007 is breaking box office records at a rate that’s leaving even Festival staff bewildered.
"It's been an interesting one to watch," says Festival chief publicist Sarah Wilson. "For instance, Uncle Vanya is an extraordinary epic in Russian and it’s doing incredibly well. I know we have an audience in Sydney whose origins are Russian but we never dreamed it would take off like this."
At the end of November, Festival box office takings were $2 million in just two weeks, which put it 70% ahead of where they were at the same time last year. And "Sold out" notices began popping up on the Festival website.
Sydney Festival General Manager Josephine Ridge says, "The incredible support our audiences gave the Festival in January 2006 resulted in record box office revenue. This helped drive our programming budget for 2007, enabling (director) Fergus Linehan to devise the biggest Festival program to date."
It’s not just bigger and better, however. Two of the most popular venues are the Becks Bar and its music events (Violent Femmes - first to sell out) and the relatively teensy and historic Famous Spiegeltent. The first show to post “House Full” signs for this venue (at Hyde Park North this year) is the fabulous Le Clique - human circus.
But if you had your heart set on Lou Reed’s Berlin (pictured) or Joanna Newsom or the Beckett plays - do not despair!
One of the most popular initiatives of 2006 has been repeated and extended for 2007: Tix For Next to Nix.
Says Sarah Wilson: "We made a commitment that there would be tickets for every paid event, every day, available on the morning at Tix For Next to Nix in Martin Place."
[page]So - that’s the Festival’s core promise and unlike those of pollies which are most often rotten to the core - it is promised that if you get up early enough, or possibly even camp out, if you really really really want to see Lou Reed’s Berlin - there will be tickets on sale on the morning of each show.
Then there’s the other big hit of last year: About An Hour with all tickets at just $25 and a commitment of just that 60 or so minutes, it’s a great way to start a night out.
The only foreseeable problem with the Sydney Festival 2007 is that the city, once deserted and delicious as most people took off up the coast or enplaned for Queensland, will be busy as. Those of us who’ve sneakily stayed home to enjoy Sydney as a holiday destination with a fabulous cultural feast thrown in will have to learn to share.
There’s plenty to go around, however: 82 events, 272 performances and 50 of those are free. Another unsung bonus is that the anticipated audience of about one million will be people out to have a good time and not smack each other about the head and be obnoxious. Happy days.
CONSIDER THESE ...
The Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom Theatre Royal; as a title it might not fit on a regular marquee but its a treasury of Australian brilliance with John Clarke, Neil Armfield, the Company B Belvoir crew and May Gibbs’ classic characters.
Madeleine Peyroux State Theatre; the coolest interpreter of dreams since Billie Holiday.
Kaidan: a Ghost Story Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House; Meryl Tankard and Taikoz - anticipate dance and sound, imagination and magic. But actually, all the dance program looks unmissable and, for Sydney’s half-starved dance fans: a feast.
Rosanne Cash Black Cadillac: in concert State Theatre and Riverside Parramatta; it don’t come no closer to country royalty than this.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Yohangza Theatre Company, South Korea, Riverside Parramatta; the Russian Twelfth Night started something at the last festival - a fascination with how other cultures do Shakespeare - same, same but different - and amazing.
Sydney Festival 2007 - full program and details on www.sydneyfestival.org.au And we’ll be back with updates and more as time slips by. Don't forget to check out our preview of the Festival with Festival Director Fergus Linehan, in the Video Section!
