Exhibitions, Shows, Festivals
Australians know how to throw a party - as they proved to the world during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Throughout the country, there are festivals, events and exhibitions that
celebrate the diversity of modern, multicultural Australia - one of the most racially varied societies on the planet.
Sydney's Party Time
 The Sydney Festival, one of Australia's big events, consists of three weeks of sensational theatre, dance, music, outdoor exhibitions and visual arts culminating on Australia Day,
January 26. Each year, the Sydney Opera House is illuminated in a different colour during the festival to provide a focal point.
The Festival of Sydney is held in high summer, which gives it an outdoor holiday flavour. Visitors from the northern hemisphere winter are overwhelmed to find themselves in the
midst of an extravaganza of summer opera, fireworks, ferry races, street theatre, art and free open-air concerts. It's been happening for 25 years and getting better by the year.
Spectacular free public performances have become festival highlights. Great outdoor concerts - opera, jazz and classical - are held in the Domain, a big central-Sydney park. Thousands
of families turn out to enjoy the music, some arriving hours early to choose the best locations.
Year after year, brilliant talent from around the world astounds and delights. Els Comediants visited in 1996, before becoming world-famous for their performance at the opening of
the Olympic Games in Barcelona. Recent festivals have offered performances of Elektra, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, the Netherlands Dance Theatre and visits from the Russian National
and the Philharmonia Orchestras.
The festival beat goes on: rainbow serpents move through the Sydney night, dance troupes cavort in front of the Opera House, kites fly and people have fun.
At Mardi Gras Time
 What started as a small protest march has become a packed festival that grips the attention of the whole city.
Festivities begin as the sun sets with a gathering of about 12,000 local gay men and lesbians on the steps of Sydney Opera House. It's a week of dance parties, theatre, cabaret,
films, sports, debates and art. Fair Day is an opportunity to get out into the Sydney sunshine, at Victoria Park. But the hottest ticket of the season is the Harbour Party,
an outdoor dance party, with the harbour bridge and opera house as a backdrop, held the Sunday before the parade - a great introduction to Mardi Gras week.
Shopping Spree
In a Shop Yourself Stupid event along Sydney's main streets, participating stores donate a portion of their sales to
Australia's largest HIV/AIDS charity - the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation. Music, entertainment and more than a handful of drag queens jostle for attention.
When hundreds of 'Dykes
on Bikes' thunder up Oxford Street on the night of the parade, you know the next few hours will be intense: thousands join in a parade of floats, marching groups, spectacular
costumes, humour and outrage. And afterwards, there's the Mardi Gras Party at Fox Studios, with shows, costume pageants, live entertainment and dancing, all night long.
The following week, it's time for some relaxation with post-Mardi Gras events across Australia.
Adelaide's Fringe
Adelaide's zany, creative and stimulating Fringe Festival is one of the biggest and most vibrant arts festivals in the world. It celebrates
artistic innovation, presenting many of the world's finest independent artists in a vast and varied program. The Fringe includes something for all ages, tastes
and budgets. An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program runs in parallel with the Fringe, celebrating Australia's indigenous culture and talent.
The Fringe runs every two years, concurrently with the acclaimed Adelaide Festival. Despite its international span, the Fringe remains firmly based
in South Australia, attracting very large local audiences and lots of local artists. Fringe attractions range from a fantastic outdoor program to dance, music, visual arts,
youth program, comedy and cabaret.
Organisers working on Adelaide Fringe aim to "discover and explore new and evolving forms of contemporary Fringe culture". They favour independent and experimental artists
- which makes for an exciting blend. Unlike the mainstream Adelaide Festival which runs alongside it, the Fringe accepts all comers who pay the registration fee.
Valley Folk
Held in January each year in a lyrical part of Tasmania, the Tamar Valley Folk Festival is a three day celebration to the tunes of fiddles, flutes, hand drums and dulcimers.
Hill
Tribes festival
A New Year festival set against Queensland's majestic Sunshine Coast hinterland, the Woodford Folk Festival is an excursion into the worlds of music, storytelling,
film, theatre and Aboriginal life.
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