Sydney Fringe Festival Announces 2016 Program with a CALL TO PARTY

The Sydney Fringe Festival has released details and opened ticket sales for the full 2016 program, presented from 1 until 30 September at 46 partner venues across inner Sydney. The vibrant program includes more than 300 ticketed productions, spanning theatre, physical theatre and circus, music, comedy, visual art, film, cabaret, musical theatre, dance and spoken word.

Highlighting the city's vibrant culture, this year's Festival takes to the streets with a 'call to party' activating the suburbs of Darlinghurst, Chippendale, Surry Hills, Redfern, Marrickville, Leichhardt, Annandale, Glebe, Newtown, Sydenham and St Peters. This year's program also includes public forums, a picnic day, kids events and activities, and an entirely new creative precinct titled Off-Broadway.

The Fringe Ignite Launch Party celebrates the opening of the Festival on Saturday 3 September, presenting a series of live music gigs and performances from 3pm until 7pm along Stanley Street in Darlinghurst. This event, curated by ARIA winning, Grammy nominated jazz pianist and composer Barney McAll, will see shops, bars and cafes along this iconic strip converted into free pop-up venues filled with live music and performances. The Midnight Shift continues the party from 9pm with a Drag Disco, the first in a series of discos presented during the Festival including a Retro Disco on 4 September, family friendly Deadly Disco on 16 September and two Silent Discos on 17 & 22 September.

Festival Director Kerri Glasscock said: "The Festival is about discovering and experiencing new places, sounds, people and genres. We are excited to collaborate with APRA, the National Live Music Office, the City of Sydney and the Darlinghurst community for this opening night extravaganza."

The Sydney Fringe Festival presents over 50 theatre shows with highlights including Melita Rowson's part TED talk, part comedic monologue The Giant Worm Show at the Old 505 Theatre following her hit performance at last year's Festival 6 Degrees of Ned Kelly. Radical theatre show Queen Cxnt explores women's sexual identity at The Midnight Shift while Erskineville Town Hall hosts Sarah Kane's Crave. At Kings Cross Theatre enter the magical world of Atlantis.

This year's Fringe Festival music highlights include Tina Harrod & her All Star Quartet and the 17-piece Sirens Big Band who present their brand of exciting big band music at Venue 505. Venue 505 will also host Damien Wright who is considered to be at the forefront of flamenco guitar in Australia. Another highlight includes former Radio National Music Director Tim Ritchie's Photographic Exhibition at Folonomo Gallery in Surry Hills. Tim will also be In Conversation, sharing stories of a now lost-Sydney: a pre-dawn world where memory rather than photos recall characters spilling out of long-defunct inner-city 80s clubs after his DJ sets.

Visual arts highlights include part fashion show, part exhibition, part crystal ball sARTorial, an interactive visual event marrying multimedia art and the next level of couture by showcasing Australia's fresh, new and exciting young talent through a cutting edge display of wearable art. Sally Simpson presents ritual objects in Objects for an Unknown Future Museum at Stanley Street Gallery while Polixeni Papapetrou displays her photo series of girls festooned with flowers set against a floral backdrop. Award-winning photographer Zahn Pithers presents Australia Street Portraits from the Inner West, depicting the people from Australia Street in the Inner West of Sydney.

The Cabaret and Musical Theatre program will reveal numerous performances, including Lady Sings It Better where four women take on the western world's most famous male musicians and reinvent them. The Physical Theatre and Circus program presents Love, Loss and Lattes, an exploration of one woman's love of coffee, as well as First and Foremost Entertainment Award Brighton Fringe 2015 winner Elixir. Dance highlights include two SYNZ award-winning New Zealand works, Pedal and Castles, which will spend a week in the Sydney Fringe Festival Touring Hub. Also appearing for two nights only in Sydney on their national tour is Melbourne City Ballet's Romeo and Juliet. Emerging Sydney choreographers Omer and Sharon Backley-Astrachan present two premieres TOHU and VALLEY that explore the universal behaviours of mankind and search for rawness in a world that grows numb.

The Sydney Fringe Festival will take over the newly refurbished Camperdown Park as well as recently opened Camperdown Commons with a huge program of events. On 18 September the park will take a step back in time for a Vintage Cricket Day Picnic, inviting families to enjoy a day with lunchtime cricket workshops for kids. At the Commons sci-fi stars Dean Haglund from X-Files and Andreea Kindryd from Star Trek will perform along with a great program of other comedy shows.

Fringe Kids has a huge program filling the September school holidays. Over the weekend of 24 and 25 September marvel at the young duo behind Cardistry Cubed or try your hand at arts and crafts at the Wonderful Wall Hangings workshop. Kids are encouraged to get active with Yoganauts at Redfern Community Centre, using four yoga superheros to guide children through the different benefits of yoga in a new and lively way.

Sydney Fringe Festival for the first time unveils brand new creative arts precinct Off Broadway. The precinct launches on 11 September with an afternoon curated by musician and Festival ambassador Elana Stone with free live music, the opening of the Stencil Art Prize, and food and drink. Warehouses, shopfronts, bars, pubs and spare spaces up the strip become home to a thriving community of local Independent artists. The precinct will continue to grow beyond September to become one of the City's most important cultural assets.

This year's closing weekend hosts two huge events. Global Rhythms fills Bicentenial Park in Glebe with sounds from across the world by some of the country's leading musicians, and international performance artist Honi Ryan returns to break last year's record with the largest Silent Dinner Party at Paddington Town Hall. 2015's Silent Dinner party was a sold out smash hit, inviting participants to become part of a living art installation.

For the full program, list of artists and ticketing information please visit http://sydneyfringe.com/

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