FESTIVAL FACTS AND FIGURES

The 2009 program included events across a range of genres including theatre, contemporary music, classical music, jazz, dance, circus, comedy, film and talks. We've done some more number crunching and have come up with a few facts and figures that might interest you about this year's Festival.

- Number of performances: more than 245 events, 45 of which were free
- Number of free events: 40, including Festival First Night, the concerts at The Domain, outdoor films at Darling Harbour and The Overflow, and 30 pianos placed in public places in Sydney and Parramatta.
- Number of venues across Sydney and Parramatta: 20
- Number of radio interviews that took place: 196
- Number of artists and company members: over 1000 from more than 20 countries including UK, France, Canada, USA, Germany, Bosnia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Russia, France, Argentina, India and Ireland.
- Number of tireless Festival volunteers: 224 (125 alone for Festival First Night)
- Number of hours volunteered during Festival: 2815 hours
- Number of choristers in Dawn Chorus at Bondi Beach: 280
- Number of performances of The Smile Off Your Face in a day: 50
- Number of pianos placed on the streets of Sydney and Parramatta during January: 30
- Amount of gold foil confetti that falls onto the stage per performance of The War of the Roses Part 1: 200 kilos
- Number of Sydney Festival staff in January: 415 employees made up of 20 full time, 104 contractors and 290 casuals
- Number of attendants at Festival First Night: approx 300 000
- Number of tickets sold: 128 000
- Number of tickets sold at the Tix for Next to Nix booth: 4163
- Number of airport pick ups and drop offs: 123
- Number of nights booked for rooms in hotels and apartments: 3603
- Number of Sydney Festival flags across the city: 687
- Number of coffees consumed by Festival staff during the month of January: approx 12 000