The A-Z of this year’s Sydney Festival: From art to zen

From kaleidoscopic knitted playgrounds to cowbell-juggling acrobats, from a queered Filipino ghost story, to a Weitou bridal lament, a song-powered Siegfried & Roy biopic, floating glowing whales, a Wild West pioneer town and First Nations music, conversation, cabaret and stories, the 2025 Sydney Festival’s arts smorgasbord, the fourth and last curated by outgoing festival director Olivia Ansell, licks every summer taste.

A is for art. A boisterous, neon-lit merging of cyber-worlds, yum-cha history and sci-fi, Cao Fei: My City Is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Nov 30-April 13) is the largest exhibition of internationally acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist Cao Fei seen in Australia. A retrospective, with two new commissions, its immersive world features films, photography and large-scale installations that traverse a faithfully recreated 1950s Beijing cinema, a heart-rending time-space tale, a retro disco spectacle, remnants of beloved Cantonese yum-cha restaurant Marigold and esteemed Sydney locals performing hip-hop dance moves.

B is for blooms. Meander through the verdant plant life of Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden (Clark Park, Lavender Bay, Jan 18-19) with the air filled by music performances from composer and multi-instrumentalist William Barton, vocalist and violinist Véronique Serret, saxophone, clarinet and beatbox duo NoSax NoClar, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ VOX and Chamber Singers, oud-virtuoso Joseph Tawadros and his percussionist brother James, and tabla maestro Maharshi Raval.

C is for circus. Ogle free acrobatic sprees of aerial trapeze and circus skills at Swing! Circus at Darling Harbour (Palm Grove, Darling Harbour, Jan 4-25) as the sky scraping members of Sydney Trapeze School twirl, fly and teeter with panache.

D is for drag. First Nations drag performer Miss Ellaneous (aka Ben Graetz) delivers Tina – A Tropical Love Story (Jan 11-12, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company) a cabaret show and personal tribute about the lifelong, and life-changing, effect of seeing Tina Turner perform live at the Darwin Amphitheatre in the Northern Territory in 1993, and how it helped shape a young First Nations boy’s life.

E is for entrada, Spanish for a flamenco dancer’s entrance, heralded in A Taste of Spain (Jan 18-19, Casula Powerhouse), an immersive celebration of music, dance and food led by the Pepa Molina Flamenco Dance Company and the Western Sydney Youth Orchestra, who kick up their heels and raise their voices to realise 19th century Spanish piano virtuoso and composer Isaac Albeniz’s Suite Espanola.

F is for First Nations. Jacob Nash, Sydney Festival creative artist in residence, says 2025’s Blak Out program, a nine-strong collection of theatre, cabaret, workshops, dance, talking and music, aims to “unite voices to celebrate identity, spark conversations and embrace challenging discussions rooted in our communities”. Hear Murrawarri, Filipino and Ngemba rapper-drummer Dobby perform their debut album, Warrangu: River Story (Jan 25, ACO on the Pier), a powerful rallying cry to protect and stop over-irrigation and water theft of the Bogan, Culgoa and Barwon rivers in Brewarrina, NSW. Curated by Rudi Bremer, host of ABC Radio National program Awaye!, the three-week gathering space Vigil: Gunyah (Jan 6-25, Barangaroo Reserve) features conversations, workshops and performances under a woven bamboo canopy.

G is for giddy up: Swivel your cowboy hat at Animal (until Jan 12, Riverside Theatres, Jan 16-19, The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre Sutherland), an all-ages barn-storming, cow-dancing, mechanical bull-somersaulting farmyard circus jamboree with live tunes by world-renowned Cirque Alfonse from Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in Québec.

H is for hoofing. Choreographer Stephanie Lake’s last Sydney Festival show, Manifesto, wowed audiences with its nine drummers and nine dancers building a “tattoo to optimism” in front of a mammoth pink velvet curtain. Lake returns with The Chronicles (Jan 16-19, Roslyn Packer Theatre), a thrumming, driving and stirring elegy to the cycle of life, accompanied by Robin Fox’s electro-acoustic score.

I is for insight. In an empowering call to women to love who they are, stage and screen powerhouse Christie Whelan Browne unpicks her life stories in Life in Plastic (Jan 14, Sydney Theatre Company), a moving and hilarious cabaret that melts hearts, reframes teenage bedroom diary dreams and reveals a challenging path to self-love.

J is for journalism. Kate McClymont, chief investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, 10-time Walkley Award-winner and the epitome of a journalist who acts without fear or favour in exposing corruption, betrayal and crime, talks with Sydney Festival director Olivia Ansell (January 12, State Library of New South Wales) about cases, criminals and cover-ups.

K is for kinetics. Ponder a large-scale moving whale puppet, and other floating sea creatures, swimming ashore in Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s immersive ode to life under water, The Whale (until Jan 12, Bondi Pavilion).

L is for lions. Specifically white lions, or cats, as master illusionists Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, once the highest paid entertainers in the world, called their animal co-stars across four decades of lavish and spectacularly successful Las Vegas magic shows. Revisit their extraordinary rags-to-riches lives in comedic musical biopic Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, a new Australian production soaring between flamboyant characters, extravagant magic, a tragic end to their shows and vocals that will blow back your bouffant mullet (Jan 8-25, Sydney Theatre Company).

M is marriage traditions. Chinese-Australian musician, producer and songwriter Rainbow Chan created The Bridal Lament 哭嫁歌 (Jan 23-26, Riverside Theatres) after discovering the songs of her ancestors, the Weitou people, who settled in Hong Kong from southern China 1000 years ago. They included laments sung by brides-to-be preparing to cut ties with their families after an arranged marriage. Chan’s tender and engrossing song-cycle blends spine-tingling art-pop, vivid projections and intergenerational tales of loss.

N is for nabbed. Lovers of true crime should flock to A Model Murder (until Jan 25, Darlinghurst Courthouse), playwright Melanie Tait and director Sheridan Harbridge’s portrait of the real-life 1954 murder trial of Shirley Beiger, a 22-year-old model, and overnight sensation, after she shot her boyfriend Arthur Griffith outside a Sydney nightclub for cheating.

O is for opera. A classic fairy tale brought sumptuously to life, Cinderella (until March 28, Sydney Opera House) brings favourites – glass slippers, a midnight curfew, a horse-drawn carriage, those less-than-friendly step-sisters – into a bold, family-friendly reimagining in Opera Australia’s presentation of Laurent Pelly’s acclaimed production.

P is for phantasm. Co-created by Justin Talplacido Shoulder, Anito (Jan 15-18, Carriageworks), a merging of animal, plant, human and machine, draws from Indigenous Philippine folk religions to reimagine ancient myths, the ancestral underworld and the path of colonial invasion via intoxicating dance, elaborate craft, costume and puppetry and experimental electronic music.

Q is for queer. Comedy writer Vic Zerbst and composer Oliver John Cameron’s new play Converted! (until Jan 25, the Rebel Theatre, Australian Theatre For Young People) satirises gay conversion camps, and the joy of self-discovery, in a feel-good, queer-led comedy disco musical about falling in love and trusting who you are.

R is for roving. Traverse Bankstown by foot, your ears filled with stories from young locals explaining the significance of suburb locations in Stories From Here: an Audio Tour of Bankstown (Jan 18-19, beginning at Bankstown Arts Centre). Bring headphones, scan the QR code posters and discover personal tales at sites ranging from Pho Minh Temple to Bankstown Arts Centre, Keating Park and Bankstown Gospel Hall.

S is for Shakespeare. Or is it? As You Like It or The Land Acknowledgement (Jan 5, Sydney Opera House), is a funny, challenging and moving work by Canadian First Nations artist Cliff Cardinal exploring hollow gestures from a colonial power. Part stand-up, part dramatic monologue, this uncompromising work, fired by the state of the reconciliation process between Indigenous communities and colonial settlers in Canada, broaches painful truths hiding in plain sight.

T is for tunes. Sydney Festival’s music program is packed with music artists, ranging from festival favourite, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (Jan 8, Sydney Opera House), the reuniting of Not Drowning, Waving (fronted by David Bridie) and PNG musicians, including George Telek, performing 1990 album Tabaran (Jan 24, City Recital Hall), Emma Pask reprising her Latin jazz album Cosita Divina (Jan 22, City Recital Hall) and the Australian debut of US soul star Jalen Ngonda (Jan 16, 17, City Recital Hall).

U is for underwater. James Cameron, ocean explorer, Titanic director and deep-sea expedition veteran, talks about travelling to the deepest point beneath the sea’s waves inside the Deepsea Challenger, a vessel built here and displayed for inspection at the Australia National Maritime Museum (Jan 26. ANMM, Darling Harbour).

V is for Vexatious. A scathingly funny comedy for ages three-and-up, BullyBully (Jan 7-12, Riverside Theatres, July 7-12, Sydney Opera House) reframes petulant global political figures as bickering kindergarteners. Created by acclaimed Netherlands company Maas theater en dans, this hilarious two-hander finds a resolution to infantile fracas, big and small, in a delightful mix of songs, physical theatre and bright, colourful set and costume.

W is for Wild West. Following last year’s transformation of the Sydney Lord Mayor’s ornate Victorian hall into a sand-festooned beach opera, Dark Noon (Jan 9-23, Sydney Town Hall), from Danish director Tue Biering and co-director Nhlanhla Mahlangu for the Copenhagen company Fit+Foxy, is a brutal and thought-provoking reimagining of American history performed by a cast of seven South African actors on a red dirt set slowly transformed into a pioneer town.

X is for BMX. A skyward symphony of boundary pushing, street-style performance, Branch Nebula’s Air Time (Jan 7-11, Seymour Centre) is a thrilling mix of dance, parkour, BMX balletics and skateboard spectacle. Created by longtime collaborators Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters, this fusion of curated physicality, electronic music and extreme sports is adrenaline-pumping.

Y is for Yang. Revered photographer, artist and performer William Yang, known for his work documenting queer and Asian-Australian communities, and for making slideshow/monologues an art form, marks his 81st year by curating his life story in William Yang: Milestone (Jan 10-11, Roslyn Packer Theatre).

Z is for zen. Enter a state of inner peace, body flexibility and unexpected natural releases at Sunrise Yoga (Jan 8-25, Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay), a daily 60-minute Vinyasa class led by instructor Jazz Luna starting at sunrise (6.30am). Or find equilibrium at Colour Maze, a hue-tastic interactive 10-room playland with craft, stickers, building blocks and swings, visually inspired by the “Tongpop” aesthetic of Sydney Festival Visual Artist in Residence Telly Tuita (until Jan 25).

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