The Rocks Village Bizarre

Overview

The Rocks has proved an unexpectedly difficult area to rejuvenate. Home to winding laneways, heel-cracking cobblestones, quaint colonial haunts, and shady histories, it should be the atmospheric epicentre of cultural life in this city. We've been waiting for the day it is. But so far, despite notable inroads by such initiatives as the Pop-Up Project and the MCA's Lights on Later, The Rocks has had a hard time shaking off its tourist-saturated image.

Now the most promising sign of change yet has come with the new weekly event Village Bizarre. Happening on Friday evenings throughout November and December, it puts contortionists, comedians, music-makers, open dance classes, games, barbers' chairs, and curios at the end of every alley and under each rickety awning.

You'll meet such characters as convict butcher George Cribb, underwater knitters Mrs Polly Mer and Mrs Ester, and melancholic cabaret artist Tia Juana. There are also some more sustained, very intriguing site-specific performances, including the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festival hit Ute Uber Kool Ja, in which you venture into the Holiday Inn room of an ageing rock star (you'll need to book tickets for the privilege), and Blind Date, a blindfolded one-on-one tour of The Rocks that's tailored specially to you. And don't forget to download the mp3 before you head out if you want to experience Crowds Above You.

To keep you hopping from oddity to exotica, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority-presented event features three pop-up bars — the Enchanted Forest Bar, the Canopy Bar, and best of all, the White Rabbit Bar, which, in an Eyes Wide Shut meets leporine vibe, requires you to don a rabbit mask before entry.