‘Long reads’ and ‘frothy fun’ in store as Sydney Festival 2027 unveiled

The 2027 Sydney Festival will include a nod to wellness culture with an outdoor installation of old cars transformed into saunas, cold plunges and spas, free for public use.

If that is a sentence you never expected to read, that makes two of us.

Upon reflection the waynapuni pools public bathhouse, to be created by industrial designer Benjamin Paul, working with First Nations teenagers, and installed in Barangaroo Reserve from January 7 to 25, is quintessentially Sydney Festival.

Since it began, Sydney’s annual arts jamboree has demonstrated a knack for reflecting our city back to us and public bathing is certainly having a moment.

At the first Sydney Festival in 1977, during the craft era, Haymarket was transformed into a bustling arts and crafts market.

A decade later, 14 bands were on the line-up for an overnight Twelve-Hour Rockathon at Sydney Entertainment Centre, and who can forget Festival First Night from 2008-2012, which drew 250,000 people to the centre of Sydney during the GFC, when we all really needed a party.

Artistic director Kris Nelson’s second Sydney Festival boasts a huge contemporary dance program, Dance Reflections, backed by high-end French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels and the return of First Nations-led multi-arts strand Blak Out.

Among the highlights outside of these programs is a new show from comedian Hannah Gadsby, American clown Spencer Novich and free dance event, The Party, at the Cutaway.

Nelson frames his programming style through the prism of summer beach reading.

“It’s equal parts fluff, pulp and big heavy reads, and there’s something about that in a summer program that I want,” he says.

“I want a frothy fun party or a great gig night, as much as I want something that is like the long read.”

Fulfilling that slot is Irish company Dead Centre, which will transform Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky’s poetry into a contemporary drama wherein a soldier shoots a deaf boy who can’t hear his orders, the next day, the townspeople are deaf.

“It’s heavy and it’s beautiful. It’s an allegory, a protest,” Nelson says.

It is also the closest the 2027 program comes to engaging with the current febrile geopolitical climate.

“Lots of people in the program are touched by what’s happening in the world, it’s a program that’s engaged in our times,” Nelson says.

Dance Reflections is an ongoing international festival overseen by former New York City Ballet dancer Serge Laurent, who gathers some of the world’s premier dance troupes into curated programs staged in varying combinations since 2022 in nine cities, from London to Shanghai.

The 10th iteration in Sydney will present a physical theatre smorgasbord of 13 different shows at venues across Sydney and a dozen dance workshops at Sydney Dance Company.

France’s Rachid Ouramdane has devised an aerial work wherein 20 dancers and four extreme sports athletes will be suspended by tightropes and thrown through space at the Cutaway Barangaroo.

Famed choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Morocco’s Radouan Mriziga will collaborate on Together at Carriageworks, a reimagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

A decade after her death, Trisha Brown’s company will perform Roof Piece at the Art Gallery NSW.

The world premiere of Ngurragabu, a major new work exploring an environmental apocalypse from Australia’s pan-national First Nations dance company Marrugeku has been included in the program.

Marrugeku’s ensemble of First Nations, Filipino and Melanesian dancers will perform within a monumental mangrove forest being devised by visual artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah.

Arts festivals at their best showcase incredible international artists alongside new Australian works, inspiring audiences and artists and seeding potential ongoing collaborations. Laurent is non-committal about Marrugeku being included in future international Dance Reflections programs.

“With artists you have to know each other, it’s a story each time,” he says.

His curatorial approach is to provide a platform for artists from different backgrounds.

“Dance Reflections is a way to bring together very diverse artists [with] a very strong common point. They are researchers trying to find their own voice, so it’s quite eclectic, but in fact very consistent.”

Marrugeku’s artistic co-director Dalisa Pigram has a similar approach to choreography.

“We have nine artists spanning regions of maritime knowledge, including the Melanesian and Torres Straits, Singapore and East Indonesia and on the mainland Bardi Jawi and Nyaru knowledges within the region of the Kimberley.”

Ancient saltwater knowledge systems have a lot to offer us as we contemplate melting ice caps and increased precipitation, she says.

“I’m not a choreographer at the front asking people to move in certain ways, we have an approach that’s inspired by what moves the dancer,” she says.

First Nations programming head Aidan Rowlingson has expanded the festival’s established Blak Out program to include a music series, Black and Blues.

“I love the [concept of] First Nations musicians taking on their favourite soul blues artists at the Metro Theatre,” Nelson says.

ARIA Award-winner Budjerah will channel Donny Hathaway, Wiradyuri/Filipinx artist MO’JU will conjure the music of Bill Withers and Etta James will be celebrated by Jamaican/Arrernte artist SOLCHLD.

“Expect a sense of familiarity and discovery,” Nelson says.

Emily in Sydney will present another opportunity to see one of our most recognisable artists anew. The curated exhibition of paintings by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, drawn largely from private Sydney collections, will be on at S. H. Ervin Gallery.

Up Late with Bianca Hunt at Belvoir St Theatre will consist of conversations with artists and cultural leaders.

Wiradjuri Yuin actor Angeline Penrith will return for the third year with Redfern Renaissance, a series of performance readings and discussions about the revolutionaries and activism of Redfern’s National Black Theatre in the 1970s.

Sydney Festival runs from January 7–25, 2027. Tickets go on sale Thursday, October 22 at sydneyfestival.org.au, with 10,000 prime seats available from $49 or less across all ticketed shows.