Imperial Panda Festival 2011

Overview

The Imperial Panda Festival does strange art, performance and some general fringe. It emerged from the tail end of Lanfranchi's Memorial Discotheque and ran two packed small festivals in 2008 and 2009. Returning from a fallow year last year, the Festival is landing on Sydney in a bigger and better-funded incarnation. A new festival headquarters is being provided by the SMAC-winning Goodgod Small Club, giving this year's Festival a beating heart and an underground home.

For two weeks in March, the Imperial Panda Festival inflates Sydney's regular creative miasma into a maelstrom of art and entertainment. Regulars return, like The Suitcase Royale (in part and in whole) and various incarnations of artist collective Cab Sav. But this year's festival is also home to the Campfire Collective's Moth-like storytelling evening, the Hanson-baiting Pauline Pantsdown and an edifying show explaining What Is Soil Erosion? Not to mention a series of free talks and some bartering art in the form of an Unwanted Music Swap and the mysterious Stock Exchange project — which matches strange bargains with stranger counter-offers. What more could you want, actual pandas aside?

*Tickets for most events are on sale on the door of the venue on the night.