The 2016 Sydney Festival program has been released into the wild, boasting a healthy serving of music from acts like The Flaming Lips, Dirty Three and Joanna Newsom.
Psych-rock icons The Flaming Lips are headlining Sydney Festival’s free and all-ages 2016 launch party as part of Summer Sounds in The Domain, in a show which is bound to be colourful, whacky and super-uplifting.
Elsewhere on the lineup, Aussie experimental trio come Dirty Three will come together for a rare show, while singer and harpist Joanna Newsom will perform at the Sydney Opera House.
Local lads Jack Ladder, Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benét & PVT’s Laurence Pike are also putting together a special show called Dreamland, which will see the BFFs share the spotlight for one night only. It’s being billed as “the Twin Peaks Red Room meets Red Faces“, and it sounds magical.
Mexrrissey, a seven-piece Mexican band who rejig Morrissey’s and The Smiths’ music into Spanish, are also set to perform, as are New Zealand indie-pop outfit The Chills and Los Angeles duo Girlpool, along with many others.
On the more theatrical side of things, American crooner Tom Waits has teamed up with Kathleen Brennan and acclaimed theatre director Robert Wilson to reinvent Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck as a 21st century musical, which will be performed as Sydney Festival’s 2016 centrepiece.
The terrific 2014 feature film Birdman will also be screened with a live score from jazz improviser and composer Antonio Sanchez.
Sydney Festival 2016 will be the 40th running of the event, and will be sprawled out across Hyde Park, Parramatta and Barangaroo. The event will run from the 7th to 26th January.
Catch some of the musical lineup highlights below, and for the full program head to the Sydney Festival website.
Watch: The Flaming Lips – Look The Sun Is Rising (Live)
Sydney Festival 2016 Music Lineup
The Flaming Lips
Dirty Three
Joanna Newsom
Jack Ladder, Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benét & Laurence Pike present Dreamland
Mexrrissey
The Chills
Girlpool
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs!
Kate Tempest
Mirel Wagner & Nadia Reid
Lou Barlow
Dâm-Funk
Matthew E. White
Jenny Hval
The Apartments
+ many more on the full program
Sydney Festival 2016
Thursday, 7th — Tuesday, 26th January 2016
Various Venues, Sydney
Tickets: Sydney Festival
