- The 2025 Sydney Festival will feature 130 events and 22 world premiers.
- Tickets can be obtained at just $49 until December 2 as a cost-of-living saving for the city.
- Sydney’s Town Hall will be filled with red sand to become a Western town.
It was billed as a way to give festival goers a cost-of-living break to ensure they didn’t make the January event part of their budget cuts. So when tickets for the 2025 Sydney Festival went on sale, some were priced at $49 until December 2, 2024.
But organisers needn’t have worried. So many fans hit the Festival website that it crashed. Demand for the main events remained as strong as ever, and organisers warned those interested in the $49 tickets to book up right away.
A star-studded Business Sydney event attended by the city’s good and great heard the 49th festival would feature a series of unique events.
Olivia Ansell, directing her last festival after four years, revealed the Sydney Town Hall will be turned into a red desert for Dark Noon, Darlinghurst Courthouse will take a rest from real-life murder trials for an immersive trial involving Shirley Beiger, a part time page three girl, while the Sydney Theatre company will see the world premier of an Australian production inspired by Las Vegas’ most famous magic duo in Unauthorised Opera.
Ansell told the event, held at Sydney’s main theatre district in Hickson Road, of the computer glitch, adding: “We are back on track now.”
She said the festival would be spread far and wide, from Parramatta Park to city bars and restaurants. All up, there will be 130 events, 22 world premiers, 24 Australian exclusives and over 50 free events.
The Hon. John Graham, Minister for the Arts, said: “This year’s edition puts First Nations artists at the forefront and brings new international works to Australia to ignite and inspire audiences. I encourage everyone to hunt through the program, attend and see what Sydney Festival 2025 has to offer.”
The big Sydney Festival events to watch out for
Siegried and Roy
Discover how two boys raised in war-torn Germany became the highest-paid magic act Vegas had seen. More than just business partners, Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn were inseparable: best friends, partners and muses. But the legendary showmen were hurtling towards tragedy.
Where: Sydney Theatre Company
When: January 8-25.
Dark Noon
Dark Noon flips the script on the Wild West, envisioning American history as equal parts absurd, horrifying and deeply profound. On a stage covered in the red dirt of the prairie, a pioneer town springs up in real time as an extraordinary cast of South African actors reimagines the story of the American frontier through an outsider’s lens. Directed by Danish visionary Tue Biering and South African co-director and choreographer Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Dark Noon challenges everything you thought you knew about the Wild West.
Where: Sydney Town Hall
When: January 9-23
A Model Murder
On the night of 9 August 1954, glamour model Shirley Beiger pointed a gun at her bookie’s clerk boyfriend, Arthur Griffith, in front of Chequers, one of Sydney’s ritziest nightclubs. Arthur was there with another woman… he’d told Shirley he was at the dentist. In her trial for Arthur’s murder, Shirley claimed she did not hear the gun go off, “but knew something dreadful must have happened”.
Where: Darlinghurst Courthouse
When: January 4-19.
Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden
An intimate aural experience in the iconic garden – Brett Whiteley’s record collection was as eclectic as the many stories and memories planted in Wendy Whiteley’s bohemian garden – a place for joy, grief, reflection and hope. Wander through this open-air music experience in front of the Whiteleys’ Lavender Bay home, with performances by William Barton and Véronique Serret, NoSax NoClar, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ VOX and Chamber Singers, and Joseph and James Tawadros.
Cindrillon (Cinderella) Once upon a time, there was a dejected daughter, a spiteful stepmother, a pouty prince, and some selfish sisters. You know the fairy tale, now feel the magic of Laurent Pelly’s whimsical production of Cinderella. After packed-out runs at the Metropolitan Opera of New York and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, this acclaimed staging of Cinderella makes a grand Australian debut.
Where: Sydney Opera House
When: January 2-28
Sydney Festival
Where: Various locations
When: January 4-26, 2025
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