OK let's set the scene. It's January 2026, and your favourite summer art binge has returned for a glorious fiftieth anniversary. Both temperatures and vibes in Sydney are at an all time high, and you want in on the atmos'. You're going to need something incredible to do. Something memorable.
A lightbulb pings above your head and you remember this Festival Story you read full of great ideas. You smile and nod slowly, triumphantly. Because you're way ahead of yourself – and you've already got your Festival tickets.
In a jam-packed program of highlights, here are the blockbuster events that should be top of your January to-do list.
Lacrima
22-25 January
Roslyn Packer Theatre
A British princess needs a wedding gown. Designers, ateliers and embroiderers from Paris to Mumbai race against time to finish the design, revealing the hidden human cost of every stitch in a globalised fashion industry. Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s epic theatrical drama unveils the human faces behind haute couture, while close-up video capture and shifting sets provide the drama and urgency of live cinema.
“The making of a single dress gains shades of Greek tragedy… a monumental, magnetic production.”
THE GUARDIAN
WAKE
14–25 January
Carriageworks
A kaleidoscopic variety show of Irish talent, this reworking of the grieving ritual will leave you feeling more alive than ever. From pole dancers and breakdancers to tap and aerial artistry, and from slam poets to live musicians, the team behind the much-loved cabaret RIOT (Sydney Festival 2018) return with a raucous and moving reminder to live life to the fullest while you can.
★★★★★ “WAKE is like Riverdance for club queens.”
THE IRISH TIMES
Nowhere
13–17 January
Roslyn Packer Theatre
Actor and activist Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner, The Crown) takes us on a deeply personal journey into his own experience of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and counter revolution. A cerebral work that investigates the legacies of conflicts in the Middle East, Nowhere asks how we can find agency in the mazes of history.
“Exquisitely beautiful, perfectly observed.”
THE STAGE
Mama Does Derby
15–22 January
Sydney Town Hall
In the grand tradition of the Festival taking over Sydney Town Hall for immense, immersive experiences, Mama Does Derby turns the venerable Victorian venue into a roller derby track for a heartfelt rock’n’roll spectacle about finding your people, with live band, real skaters and real thrills and spills.
Hot Chip
14–15 January
Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall
The great British electro-indie-pop band celebrate two and a half decades of infectious, quirky, innovative dance pop. Over eight studio albums and countless festival slots, they’ve refined their earworm dance-pop to a fine art – a fact evidenced by their recently released ‘best-of’ Joy in Repetition. Merging irresistible grooves with deadpan lyrics, Hot Chip live are an experience everyone should have.
“The greatest British pop band of their generation.”
THE OBSERVER
Post-Orientalist Express
8–10 January
Roslyn Packer Theatre
All aboard for iconoclastic choreographer Eun-Me Ahn’s mesmerising dance work, that joyfully subverts cliches about Asian dance with a whirlwind of colour and satire. This exclusive Australian season is a rare opportunity to experience the leading avant-garde artist’s work.
“A one of a kind force in Korean contemporary dance"
THE KOREA HERALD
Garabari
9–11 January
Sydney Opera House, Northern Boardwalk
Joel Bray Dance brings a large-scale dance and ceremony to the most iconic location in Australia: the harbour side of the Sydney Opera House. By the water and under the night sky, Garabari revives Wiradjuri dance and language, inviting you to participate in a modern take on millennia-old ritual. Bodies, light and sound entangle and loop to reveal hidden meanings through clapping, call and response vocals and native fauna dances, in this joyous corroboree.
Live on Hickson Road: Efectos Especiales and The Kick On
10 January
Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
For the first in a long time, Sydney Festival spills out of the theatres and venues for a full-on street party. Efectos Especiales turns Hickson Road into an open-air movie studio where you (the audience) are the extras. Luciana Acuña, of acclaimed absurdist theatre company Grupo Krapp, and Argentinian filmmaker Alejo Moguillansky, bring the thrill of live cinema to Sydney’s waterfront. And after wrap, stick around for a Kick On street party with DJs and dancing in the streets.
Vigil: Belong
25 January
Barangaroo Reserve
Gather for a night of Blak song and ceremony, at the cultural closing of Sydney Festival. Amidst the sculptural work of Lucy Simpson, join Uncle Matthew Doyle as he kindles fire and smoke, and Nardi Simpson leads a multigenerational, 600-strong community choir in songs spanning generations, transforming Barangaroo into a sacred gathering ground where all are invited to belong. This will be a Vigil to remember.
Lonnie Holley residency
9 & 10 January
ACO on the Pier
Master improviser and multi-disciplinary artist Lonnie Holley comes to Sydney for a three-night residency, performing solo and then in improvisational, genre-defying collaborations with handpicked artists Kankawa Nagarra and Yasmina Sadiki (plus a freewheeling in-conversation with San Franciscan nightlife personality Kelly Lovemonster). Don’t miss this opportunity to see one-of-a-kind performances by a generational talent.
“Recording Holley is akin to trying to capture lightning in a bottle, and his music represents a devotion to the very act of creation.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Sydney Symphony Under the Stars: 50 years of Music and Pictures
Various locations
Two men, one dance, centuries of tradition. Alessandro Sciarroni’s Save the Last Dance for Me revives the polka chinata, a near-lost Italian courtship dance, with breathtaking strength and tenderness. What was once a show of masculine virility becomes, in these dancers’ hands, a celebration of intimacy between men, of endurance, of love.
