First Day Ends In A State Of Grace

Sun Herald

Sunday January 11, 2009

By LEESHA McKENNY

IT BEGAN with a dawn chorus of a capella at Balmoral Beach and continued late last night at The Domain as star acts including diva Grace Jones heralded the start of the Sydney Festival.

Jones belied her 60 years when she wowed the crowd with a leg-revealing outfit including fishnet stockings, velvet corset and a hat resembling a pagoda.

Festival First Night featured 600 performers across 10 stages, an eclectic start to the three-week festival, which is in its 32nd year.

Festival director Fergus Linehan said the attendance for the free event at The Domain would be about 250,000, many of them drawn by the weather.

"I got sunburnt today for the first time in four years of Sydney Festival events," Mr Linehan said.

Dance was the theme and the mood was interactive. Garry Stewart, of Australian Dance Theatre, choreographed a 45-second dance routine called "Sydney" which was shown on all stages.

The a capella chorus opened the event at 5.15am on to a much bigger crowd than organisers anticipated. Many sat in awed silence as day broke and voices soared across the water.

Families headed to Hyde Park for the Kids First program at 2pm, before it gave way to the evening entertainment, including headliners Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

The party continued into the business district around Martin Place, which was taken over by dozens of Australian acts including the Bangarra Dance Theatre. College Street hosted American act Santogold.

At The Domain, the Cat Empire opened the night for thousands of people before Jones made her first Sydney public performance in more than 20 years.

The festival continues until January 31.

www.sydneyfestival.org.au.

© 2009 Sun Herald

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