Tiny Stadiums Live Art Festival 2014

Overview

Now in its eighth year, Tiny Stadiums has definitely established itself as one of the most inventive festivals of Sydney's performing arts scene. Presented by PACT Centre for Emerging Artists and curated by the Groundworks collective, this small-scale festival regularly takes over the streets, shopfronts and rooftops of Erskineville Village. For the next nine days, this inner-western suburb is to become a hub of interactive live performance.

With a program that focuses on bite-sized, site-specific performances and an emphasis on audience interaction, Tiny Stadiums will again bring the very best of Australia's emerging arts scene to our shared public spaces. Both locals and unsuspecting visitors will soon be at the mercy of some of our nation's most experimental artworks. For instance, Trojans, a work developed by Team MESS, has been inspired by Mexican soap operas. This video work will be shot live with actors performing an episode by a different writer each night. But instead of rehearsing the script, they're going in blind, prompted only by lines delivered to them via headphone radio receivers.

The festival's centrepiece, Live Art Saturday, promises equally weird and wonderful works. Highlights include Frances Barrett's downloadable sound piece A Manual for Time Travel, where you listen to instructions on how to move from the past to the future. The piece is set to music by Sydney-based composer Nina Buchanan and intended as a soundtrack to your exploration of the other works displayed through Erko's streets.

Make sure you also stop off at the local park to join experimental choreographers Deep Soulful Sweats in an energetic fusion of yoga, interpretative dance and disco party, dubbed Fantasy Light Yoga. For girls, the all-female collaborative Hissy Fit will be encouraging women of all ages to rock out on camera for Girls to the Front, a video installation that will evolve over the days of the festival to become the backdrop to a punk rock party finale on the last Saturday of the fetival.

Tiny Stadiums takes place in various sites around Erskineville Village and at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists from November 14-22. Visit the website for details. Check out the festival's teaser here.