Sydney Dances

Now Sydney has its own dance! It's called "The Sydney".

The theme for the Sydney Festival this year is Sydney Dances. At the Sydney Festival First Night the aim is to get 250,000 people to dance "The Sydney" en masse.

I'm gonna be there. With about 249,999 others.

So get out those dancing togs, watch and practice. Get to it!


THE SYDNEY from Sydney Festival on Vimeo.

NYE 2008 in Sydney

This image from a magnificent freeze on the vivacity website.

As New Years Eve approaches, there's a discernible buzz in Sydney. I might not have lived here for long, but I have a certain patriotic pride about the Fireworks (something to do with latent pyromaniac tendencies?). I haven't decided about, nor have I really explored, the ecological cost. The fireworks are just awesome. Period.

Imagine, just imagine my joy when I opened the mail this evening to find tickets to the Cahill Expressway vantage point for NYE. Now anyone who lives in Sydney will know that this is a damn fine thing to win! Tickets to see the fireworks up close and personal. To find out what the big orange blob in the middle of the bridge is. To be blown away by some thunder sound effects. I hear Mayor Clover Moore has been making some pretty dizzy noises about "lighting the giant sparkler". Well, who wouldn't.

I dived for google with the Cahill Expressway tickets in my sweaty little paws, and there I found some great websites - the NYE 2008 City of Sydney site with transport and planning information, but even more impressive, VivaCity. It's elegant, it's quirky, and it's very well organised. Do yourself a favour and pop in there.

Enjoy whatever you're planning for NYE. Just one tip from cruel previous experience - make sure that the place you choose for the night has enough loos. I'm already having the pre-NYE dreams about lack of sanitation, and it's not even mid-December!