The 2010 Sydney Festival was on again and on Saturday Ruth and I went down to the opening night.
We walked up to Hyde Park from Central and saw the crowds gathering in Hyde Park East.
We started off in Hyde Park East with a picnic lunch, to the tune of Hip Hop artists on the main stage near St Mary’s cathederal. There was a stall giving away free water with water bottles with the principle sponsor ANZ bank’s logo on it. I got both Ruth and I a bottle each. Ruth is not into Hip Hop and although the acts were giving it their best we decided to go to Chifley Square.
We headed down Macquarrie Street and got photos of the tiger (Chinese New Year will be the year of the tiger – with apologies to Tiger Woods). We headed down Macquarie Street and scored miniture fans from someone handing them out. They have the ANZ logo and have the words “Switch to ANZ” & “We Live in Your World”. The fans were powered by AAA batteries (Ruth and I found this out when we opened one up to see if the batteries would work in our cameras). The fans did not last long but were good.
We went to Martin Place and enjoyed the cross between “World Music” & “Hip Hop”. I did a survey – the person doing the survey had interviewed enough women and needed a male view on the evening.
I decided to get a set of batteries for the cameras and walked to the Coles Express on George St. I got a set of AA batteries and headed back to Martin Place.
On the way back I went up Rowe Street an found a DJ of a different kind setting up a “steam powered grammaphone turn table” as an installation. He wore a white suit and a bowter hat.
I got back to Ruth and the music had become a cross between the Maori Haka and Hip Hop.
As Ruth is a Jazz fan I took her to Rowe St where we enjoyed the preformance of Grammaphone man. He played some old shellac records and and danced around and put on quite an act. He reminded me of Split Enz characters by the way he danced and got around.
Eventually Ruth had enough and we went onto Chifley Square. On the way there we saw Clover Moore the Lord Mayor and here entourage touring the festival. Given she is one of the most progressive (if not the most) progressive politicians in NSW, I wonder what the festival would look like if Sydney had a more conservative Lord Mayor?
We got to Chifley Square and found it to be well and truely packed out. There were acrobats on stage and there were a cast of thousands watching them. We got there at the same time a group of teenage boys arrived and had to put up with their cat calling at the big screen (we did not reach the stage).
We decided to go to the Domain for Al Green and it was a good time to go there as the Domain reached capacity after we arrived. We found a place to sit and have dinner (Picnic once again) near a tree, close to the state library. The support act was the Black Arm Band – an indigenous group including Jimmy Little and other artists. They sang Treaty, Black Boy and other indigenous songs (I wonder would a conservative mayor include such acts?).
When the interval came around I went for a look around for a place to refill the water bottles and found to my dismay that there were none. I got back to Ruth and we polished off the Orange Juice we brought with us.
When Al Green came on things got going and it was an enjoyable act. What spoiled it was that it became a sampling effort. The Reverend had a paid concert on at the State Thearter on tonight and Ruth and I got the feeling that this was one big promo for that concert. None the less it was a good act. The music got people moving and Ruth and I got up and enjoyed the last song.
The number of people standing up my have been the catylist for an early exodus of people from the Domain – some of the people in front of us called out to people standing up dancing in front of them to sit down and were ignored. Or it could have been the blatent promotion of the State thearter concert or it could have been a desire to get to the public tranport before the great rush after the concert, but there was a minor rush to get out of the domain by some of the audience that sort of reminded me of fans of a loosing football team.
When Ruth and I left we went down Macquarie Street and on to Central.
It was a good idea to close off some of the streets (Macquarrie Street among others) to cars etc. However there were issues when an ambulance had to transport someone to hospital. The horse police escorted it and cleared the crowd. It was odd for people and I noticed there were a lot of people who kept to the footpath despite the road closures meant to make the event accessable for them.
Another thing I noticed was the absence of St John first aid volunteers. Paramedical Services a private first aid provider got the gig. I wonder if it will be the end of St John in NSW?
Tags: 2010 Sydney Festival, Al Green, Chifley Square, Grammaphone Man, Hyde Park, St Mary's cathederal
