Culture of Sydney

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Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery of NSW

The culture of Sydney, Australia is diverse and multicultural. Many of the individual cultures that make up the Sydney mosaic are centred on the ethnic, linguistic and religious communities formed by waves of immigration. (See History of Sydney.) In addition, as a major Australian city, Sydney boasts a full roster of musical, theatrical and artistic activity.

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[edit] Music

The Sydney Symphony is internationally noted and frequently performs at the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Dance Company under the leadership of Graeme Murphy during the late 20th century has also gained acclaim. Opera Australia has its headquarters in Sydney, whilst the Australian Ballet locates its main corporate offices in Melbourne. Jazz and new music (such as Sydney-based The Necks) found a home in places like "The Basement" and the now defunct Harbourside Brasserie.

Many well-known Australian rock bands have had their genesis in Sydney, including Midnight Oil, The Easybeats, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, The Vines & INXS, punk rock groups such as Radio Birdman and The Celibate Rifles, indie rockers The Clouds and The Crystal Set, to electronic music pioneers Severed Heads, Single Gun Theory, The Lab, Itch-E and Scratch-E and local favourites Sneaky Sound System. Another notable band to appear from the Sydney music scene is Wolfmother.

Many popular songs are inspired by Sydney, including "Sydney Town" by The Mexican Spitfires, "From St. Kilda to Kings Cross" and many others by Paul Kelly, "Summer Hill Road" by The Executives, "Reckless" by Australian Crawl and John Kennedy's "Love Gone Wrong".

Sydney is famous for its alternative rock scene, and is credited as the original home of the now national alternative rock festival the Big Day Out, which began in Sydney in 1992 featuring local bands such as You Am I and The Clouds and international super groups like Nirvana.

[edit] Children's entertainment

A large portion of Australia's children's entertainment originates in Sydney including highly successful musical groups The Wiggles and Hi-5 and television programs Play School, Bananas in Pyjamas, Saturday Disney, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Mister Squiggle and many others.

[edit] Literature, art, theatre and museums

The entry to the Powerhouse Museum
The entry to the Powerhouse Museum

The Sydney Theatre Company boasts a regular roster of local plays, such as noted playwright David Williamson, classics and international playwrights. From the 1940s through to the 1970s the Sydney Push, an intellectual subculture of authors and activists questioning of authority grew, its members included Germaine Greer.

Sydney has been home to many visual artists, from the lush pastoralism of Lloyd Rees depictions of Sydney Harbour to Jeffrey Smart's portraits of bleak urban alienation. The Archibald Prize is a noted portraiture prize awarded each year by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales located in Sydney.

Sydney has a range of museums including those based on science, technology and art, among others. The best-known museums include the Powerhouse Museum, Museum of Sydney, Sydney Observatory, Sydney Tramway Museum, Australian National Maritime Museum and Australian Museum.

Sydney has several independent theatres for productions throughout the city centre including the Capitol Theatre(Est.1928, 2000 seats), the Lyric Theatre (2000 seats), the Theatre Royal (1200 seats) and the State Theatre (Est.1929, 2000 seats but stage not big enough for large productions).

Despite this, the theatrical community has faced a decline in recent years following the demolition of Her Majesty's and the Regent Theatres in the 1970s-80s. Resulting in the demand for more venues and appropriate stages for productions. This has forced and diverted many international productions to make their premieres in Melbourne who has surpassed Sydney due to the amount of support it receives from the Victorian Government. In NSW however, the government has not reciprocated or shown much interest in the Theatrical arts, causing outcries from the Sydney theatrical community.

[edit] Tourism, nightlife and festivals

Main article: Tourism in Sydney
Luna Park
Luna Park

Sydney is a major tourism hub, with a reported 21.1 million tourists visited the city in 2004. Many of the tourist attractions are scattered all over the city, the most famous and visited would be the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, an architectural triumph, and one of the most famous bridges constructed, which opened in 1932. Other attractions include Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park and Sydney Tower.

Sydney has a colourful nightlife scene, with jazz and rock venues and nightclubs which can be found across the city, from Darling Harbour, Kings Cross and Oxford Street.

Sydney is also a host to many different festivals including the Sydney Festival, a celebration of free performances throughout January; the Big Day Out, a travelling rock music festival which originated in Sydney; the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (see below) the Sydney Film Festival and many other smaller festivals such as Tropfest.

[edit] Film

Sydney is Australia’s centre for film and media. Many of the landmarks in Sydney have been referenced, shown and the setting for countless films and television programs. Sydney also has a wide amount of references to films that have been set in the city, including Finding Nemo, which was set in Sydney Harbour but surprisingly the address that Dory remembers does not really exist.

[edit] Sport

Sport is an important part of the culture in Sydney. For more information go to Sport in Sydney or Sport in New South Wales.

[edit] Sydney communities and subcultures

[edit] Ethnic communities

Examples of ethnic communities in Sydney include;

While such ethnic groupings exist, these are only general representations of the relative distribution of ethnic groups in Sydney. So, for example, while there are many Asians in Eastwood, the majority of the population is still of a European background. Areas with a large proportion of people born overseas and with non-English speaking backgrounds include Auburn, Fairfield, Liverpool, and Bankstown. Generally Western European and North American born people have settled around the Lower North Shore and eastern suburbs, Middle Eastern people around the Lakemba-Auburn region, Indo-Chinese in the south-western suburbs, South Asians around Parramatta and the south east, and North East Asians in major nodes such as Hurstville, Burwood, Strathfield, Chatswood, Eastwood, Campsie and the Central Business District.

Apart from English, the 30 most widely spoken languages in Sydney are: (2004)[citation needed]

  1. Arabic
  2. Cantonese
  3. Greek
  4. Italian
  5. Vietnamese
  6. Mandarin
  7. Spanish
  8. Tagalog
  9. Korean
  10. Hindi
  11. Croatian
  12. Macedonian
  13. Serbian
  14. Turkish
  15. Indonesian
  16. Maltese
  17. German
  18. Polish
  19. Assyrian
  20. Russian
  21. French
  22. Persian
  23. Tamil
  24. Portuguese
  25. Samoan
  26. Japanese
  27. Khmer
  28. Hungarian
  29. Armenian
  30. Bengali

All languages above have over 5000 speakers in the city; Arabic and Cantonese both have over 150,000 speakers.

[edit] The gay community

Sydney is famous for its gay community, centred on Oxford Street, and the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

[edit] Sex workers

Prostitution is legal in Sydney[1] (and in much of Australia) via escort agencies and brothels.

[edit] References

Living in Sydney

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Sydney
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