We didn’t get to see as much of the Sydney Festival’s First Night as we’d have liked, but what we saw was great.
We caught the 100-saxophone-strong Sax and the City troupe jazzing it up from a building’s balconies.
On our way through Hyde Park we managed to see a bit of Grrilla Step‘s hip-hop show.
We saw the tail end of Bobby Singh’s show with Band of Brothers at the south end of Hyde Park.
But the highlight, by far, was the half-hour show by The Manganiyar Seduction. They’re 43 musicians from Rajasthan in India, and they perform music in a giant stacked “magic box”. Each box is unveiled when the performer in it starts, and is lit up when they play. It’s fantastic. The show builds to a great crescendo of drums and strings. The packed crowd loved it.
We tried to get in to see soul legend Al Green afterwards, but it was too late: that part of the park was already at capacity and they’re weren’t letting anyone else in. Still, we got to see a Scottish pipe band on the way back to the ferry.
It was a lot of fun and a great vibe at the Festival First Night.
Here’s a YouTube vid of a past performance by the Manganiyar Seduction, to show you what they’re like.
Timinator 
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