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Music, dance, theatre, and performance art headline the cultural calendars in all of Night+Day’s cool cities. We combed through dozens of annual performing arts festivals worldwide, and here are the best of the best.
Best Performing Arts Festivals in....
Best Performing Arts Festivals
Sydney
Melbourne Fringe Festival Late September to mid-October, various venues melbournefringe.com.au
The Draw: This annual art festival in early fall showcases contemporary, innovative, and trend-setting work from the always-flourishing indie arts scene in Melbourne. The Scene: The Fringe Festival was formed when artists from Melbourne noticed that most of the art being displayed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival was actually coming from their city’s artists. Some 3,000 artists now make their mark at this 19-day festival, which includes nearly 300 events. Some 90% of the work comes straight from Melbourne, making this a local treasure. Hot Tip: Sign up on the festival’s website for the official e-news publication, The Fix, for insider access to all things happening in Fringeland. The latest updates and special offers are delivered straight to your in-box and jam-packed with insider festival information.
The Draw: For 17 days in October, performances by national and international artists in dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and multimedia—including world premieres and Australian premieres—take over venues across the city. The Scene: Begun as the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Melbourne Festival is the only festival in Australia with an international heritage. Last year’s event attracted nearly half a million people and an international community of performing and visual artists. More than 90 performances are in the lineup, with a dizzying array of both free and fee events citywide. Hot Tip: Brooklyn, NY, artist Chris Doyle’s “Ecstatic City” is in the moat of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV International), where video works by some of Australia’s great “moving image-makers” will be continuously projected every day of this year’s festival (11am–midnight). Beginning at sunset each night, Doyle’s own videos will transform the gallery into a moving sculpture of light.
The Draw: One of Australia’s largest cultural festivals, this three-week January classic is a celebration of all that is Sydney. The Scene: Founded in 1977 under the principle of being a festival for the people, this is the most-attended cultural arts event in all of Australia, with more than a million annual attendees. International and national performing- and visual-arts events—some 80 events featuring 500 artists—occupy most of Sydney’s theatres, galleries, and concert halls, including City Recital Hall, Sydney Theatre, CarriageWorks, and parts of the Sydney Opera House. There are also free outdoor events that attract upward of 100,000 people at a time.
Hot Tip: 2008 marked the beginning of Festival First Night, which turns opening night into a massive outdoor party. Free shows play throughout the city’s public outdoor spaces, and all are welcome to join in for dancing in the streets.
