The Rocks’ Australia Day

Overview

Venues present and past have been hidden around the city. Shops a-plenty dominate its broader boulevards and narrow lanes. But what Sydney-siders really want is to get our hands on the roads themselves. Openings for bridges and tunnels, runs — fun or marathon — even picnics have been eagerly snapped up as excuses to get our rubber on their asphalt. But until recently we didn't get much of a chance to stick around. Who would have thought that we'd get the chance for, not just one but two city street parties in the same month? On Australia day, the Rocks will host a whole day of free music down the sharp hills and smart alleyways of one of Sydney's oldest disreputable neighbourhoods.

A long list of artists includes the Hungry Kids of Hungary, the funereal Christa Hughes and the Honky TonkShonks and any amount of choral singing. At five there's a flashmob singing Bury Me Deep in Love by the Triffids, with which you can join in. So while some may go for other festivals, ferry races or more somber bites of history, why not spend your shoe leather tapping along to the action on the Rocks' sweetly cobbled streets?

Original image by Kat Clay.