The summer month of January is one of the best times to visit Sydney. The beaches are sun drenched and the balmy weather adds manifolds to the charm of visiting the numerous sightseeing attractions in the city. Although, merriment rings through festive Sydney at all times of the year, celebrations reach a crescendo during January when the ‘Big Day Out’ festival rolls out across Australia and New Zealand. Similarly, the month also witnesses the grand ‘Sydney Festival’.

Big Day Out

The Big Day Out is an annual musical extravaganza, which pulls massive throngs of crowds from all over the world. The festival started in 1992 as a Sydney exclusive event. That year, about 9,500 spectators graced the celebration. Gradually, over the years, Big Day Out assumed gigantic proportions. Compared to 1992, the year 2009 registered an attendance of some 263,054 visitors. The festival was celebrated across Auckland, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth.

In 2010, the festival also reached the record of 100 shows and a crew of some 700 artists and crew participated as against the reported 70 in 1993. Globally famous celebrities and bands like Violent Femmes Limp Bizkit, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers have been part of this show. Quiet naturally, tourist influx reaches an all time high during the festival and travel agents sell many lucrative Sydney deals to cash in on the opportunity.

Sydney Festival

The gala Sydney Festival is supposed to be the largest cultural event in Australia and dates back to 1977. Every year, the Festival First Night event marks the opening of this festival with loads of dance, music and visual extravaganza that sets Central Sydney’s parks and streets on fire. The Festival First Night is a free event and alone draws about 250,000 visitors on an average. It also kicks off the three week long Sydney Festival, which reaches about a million people. These three weeks become a mad blur of colourful events like burlesque circus, New York rap, Russian Theatre, contemporary dances, family programmes, and conventional indigenous arts programmes.

Overall, the Sydney Festival is a plethora of about 80 events and 300 performances. More than 1000 artists strut their stuff in over 20 venues. There is a lot of competition for cheap tickets to Sydney during this time as visitors from across the world try to catch a piece of the action.

While venues like Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall and Carriage Works become the obvious hotspots of celebration, the streets and parks are also not much behind. In fact, a whirlwind of festivities seems to rock the entire city of Sydney. Undoubtedly, a visit to Sydney during January is nothing short of exhilarating.

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