Get your dancing shoes on for an epic celebration tomorrow night to bring in
FESTIVAL FIRST NIGHT
TOMORROW: JANUARY 10
2PM - 11PM
ACROSS
OVER 600 ARTISTS INCLUDING GRACE JONES, SANTOGOLD, THE CAT EMPIRE, SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS, MOVERS & SHAKERS, BUSY P, THE GYPSY QUEENS & KINGS, MEHDI, BAG RAIDERS, A-TRAK, AJAX, UBER LINGUA, MR SCRUFF, JAVA, DAN ZANES & FRIENDS, EMBER, MISSION CONTROL, JAIME DOOM & GUS DA HOODRATT, ERTH, MIKELANGELO & THE BLACK-SEA GENTLEMEN AND HEAPS MORE!
10 OPEN-AIR STAGES
ALL FREE! VIEW THE MAP HERE. DOWNLOAD THE LINE-UP AND SET TIMES HERE.
6 comments:
First night has certainly captured the interest of Sydney siders.
Some feedback:
Early on there was a good relaxed atmosphere; everyone was in a positive mood which reminded us of the Olympics.However ..... the city was much more crowded than last year and this event is going to need a major re-think of its crowd movement and control in future.
The Hyde Park area was a shuffling crush after about 9 p.m. before the main acts were due to start.The
pathways with barries on each side became far too crowded. People were trying to move in both directions and the situation became quite dangerous with people tripping, being crushed and pushed over. It would have been a lot safer and better crowd control if people were instructed /allowed to go in one direction only on the paths.
The booze effect was cutting in - there were some fights and incidentally many young women were very aggressive.
The police did their best, but it seemed there was no overall control centre and a lack of co-ordination.
The set up at MARTIN PLACE was not great. Dance stage could not be seen except by those close up - would have been better if stage was set up on the Macquarie St end so people could look up (rather than look down)and be able to view.
This precinct needed large screens so spectators in all areas of Martin Place could see what was going on.
Having local cafes and coffee bars open was very sensible.This should be encouraged.
Festival First Night is an excellent idea, but I beleive it will need some new management strategies for 2010.
Too many crowd barriers made it too hard to get from one stage to another.
Especially accessing College St Stage from the north end. I understand that some barriers stopped people from trampling plants in hyde park, however for there to be blockades in the middle of the street, solely to slow people down made little sense. Bottle-necking seemed only to cause more crushes than 'crowd-control'.
We went to your much-touted free Festival First Night last evening and boy, I hope the events that we have tickets to are not as abysmally badly-organised and a threat to our lives as last night's!
We arrived just a little before the 30-minute Santogold performance on the closed-for-the-event College Street where her tent was but instead of being allowed to walk along the pavement to the front of the stage, we were diverted into Hyde Park by crowd control personnels and chest-high metal barricades.
We spent the next half-hour, time that we could have spent having fun watching Santagold, being crushed by the hundreds of people forced to follow the garden paths, again blocked in by those metal barricades. It's a festival! In a park, for fuck's sake! People should be allowed to wander from stage to stage without being herded like animals to the slaughter. The whole time we spent getting packed in like sardines in a can, the only thought in my head was, "Please don't let anyone fall over. All it takes is one person and the domino effect would be deadly."
Forty minutes later, we got out of the crush at the other end of the park. Grace Jones, the only other act we wanted to see besides Santagold, was next on the bill but across the road on another stage at the Domain. We didn't want to risk our lives again so we decided to walk home from the quieter side of the park which took us only fifteen minutes.
So, Sydney Festival 2009, thanks for a very cosy evening. You estimated a turn-out of a quarter of a million, a number that you so proudly splashed all over the press but you weren't prepared for that even in the slightest. Now we're wondering if we should get rid of our tickets to see Nick Cave on Cockatoo Island. I mean, if you can't get your act together on land, how are we to know if the ferries that you have chartered to take us across to the island is not going to sink from overcrowding in the middle of the busy Sydney Harbour?
We visited Sydney CBD on Sunday 11th. We wandered around Hyde Park, Martin Place and the Domain. Nothing was happening - how boring. Looking at the programm, apart from a couple of Domain concerts and a ferry race, everything else is a costly night at the theatre. This can be done any night of the year.
During Januarys past, the city was more interesting - 2009 seems to be a bit of a bore.
Hopefully next year will see something happening during the day outside.
David
Great night. I came from out of town and thought the organisation was brilliant. Ate at one of the $25 fast feeds, got into the laneways early - had a ball. Moved on about 9pm and heard by way of loud-hailers that the Domain was no longer accessible so cruised by Hyde Park and had an ale and generally soaked in the vibe and the soul mama sounds of Sharon Jones. A sweet, sweet night. Everyone seemed to be having a top night. At no point was I crushed or having to push or pull my way out of a crowd. Top night.
We started out in the kids festival and ended the night in the domain. Last year we were at the domain and the relaxed atmosphere lasted all night. There seemed to be much better croud control (probably because it was smaller)and a good vibe.
We got there around 4pm, picnic blankets in tow and set up for a picnic as per last year. Kids decided they wanted to stay as well... had I known that it was going to be a mosh pit I would have said no. About 7pm people started pouring in to the front, last year I remember people were stopped. Were we supposed to pack up rented seats and stand for the night?
There were some tense moments and potential for real problems as folks trampled over peoples belongings etc.
To the arsehole who at 7pm stood in directly in front of my 10yr old seated daughter, almost stepping on her ... you are an arsehole.
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