Festival First Night with Al Green

Kick off three weeks of entertainment with Festival First Night – a nine-hour free sample of what is to come where you will see some performers you might never have thought of buying tickets for. Up to 300,000 people are expected to fill the city's streets, laneways and parks from 2-11pm on Saturday 9 January to see free performances headlined by the legendary Al Green who will be playing on The Domain stage. The godfather of gospel will be supported by Australia's super-collective of Indigenous singers and musicians, The Black Arm Band. 

The First Night fun will actually start in the afternoon with some family-friendly performances in Hyde Park from the likes of Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill and the Little Hillbillies and Indigenous singer-songwriter-story teller Ruby Hunter.
 
Hyde Park is to be transformed into a Spice Garden, inspired by the sights and sounds of India. Throughout the night there will be short performances from The Manganiyar Seduction: 43 musicians from Rajasthan who perform in multilayered stage-cage. Think Bollywood Squares. 

As dusk falls, check out the awesome laser shows through the park's Central Avenue of Trees as you wander to a stage in a different part of the city.

DJ collective Uber Lingua will bring their global urban beats to Chifley Square. Elsewhere, New York's masters of swing, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, will play alongside the soul and blues of Texas's Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.

Look up into the sky as you move from stage to stage and you might just see Australia's best aerial and circus performers swooping down from balconies. A number of singers and musicians will be popping up from balconies along Macquarie Street throughout the night. All the city's a stage.