Culture of Sydney

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Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery of NSW

The culture of Sydney is diverse and multicultural. Many of the individual cultures that make up the Sydney mosaic are centred on the ethnic, linguistic and religious communities formed by waves of immigration. (See History of Sydney.) In addition, as a major Australian city, Sydney boasts a full roster of musical, theatrical and artistic activity.

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[edit] Music

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra is internationally noted and frequently performs at the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Dance Company under the leadership of Graeme Murphy during the late 20th century has also gained acclaim. Australia's other major arts institution has its headquarters in Sydney: Opera Australia, whilst the Australian Ballet locates its main corporate offices in Melbourne. Jazz and new music (such as Sydney-based The Necks) found a home in places like "The Basement" and the now defunct, Harbourside Brasserie.

Many well-known Australian rock bands have had their genesis in Sydney, including Midnight Oil, The Easybeats, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, & INXS, as well as a host of independent groups from punk rock Radio Birdman, indie rockers The Clouds and The Crystal Set, to electronic music pioneers Severed Heads, Single Gun Theory, The Lab and Itch-E and Scratch-E. Another notable band to appear from the Sydney music scene is Wolfmother.

Many popular songs are inspired by Sydney, including "Sydney Town" by The Mexican Spitfires, "From St. Kilda to Kings Cross" and many others by Paul Kelly, "Summer Hill Road" by The Executives and John Kennedy's "Love Gone Wrong".

[edit] Literature, art, theatre and museums

The entry to the Powerhouse Museum
The entry to the Powerhouse Museum

The Sydney Theatre Company boasts a regular roster of local plays, such as noted playwright David Williamson, classics and international playwrights. From the 1940s through to the 1970s the Sydney Push, an intellectual subculture of authors and activists questioning of authority grew, its members included Germaine Greer.

Sydney has been home to many visual artists, from the lush pastoralism of Lloyd Rees depictions of Sydney Harbour to Jeffrey Smart's portraits of bleak urban alienation. The Archibald Prize is a noted portraiture prize awarded each year by the Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales located in Sydney.

Sydney has a range of museums including those based on science, technology and art, among others. The best-known museums include the Powerhouse Museum, Museum of Sydney, Sydney Observatory, Sydney Tramway Museum, Australian National Maritime Museum and Australian Museum.

[edit] Tourism, nightlife and festivals

Main article: Tourism in Sydney
Luna Park
Luna Park

Sydney is a major tourism hub, with a reported 21.1 million tourists visited the city in 2004. Many of the tourist attractions are scattered all over the city, the most famous and visited would be the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, an architectural triumph, and one of the most famous bridges constructed, which opened in 1932. Other attractions include Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park and Sydney Tower.

Sydney has a colourful nightlife scene, with jazz and rock venues and nightclubs which can be found across the city, from Darling Harbour, Kings Cross and Oxford Street.

Sydney is also a host to many different festivals including the Sydney Festival, a celebration of free performances throughout January; the Big Day Out, a travelling rock music festival which originated in Sydney; the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (see below) the Sydney Film Festival and many other smaller festivals such as Tropfest.

[edit] Film

Sydney is Australia’s centre for film and media. Many of the landmarks in Sydney have been referenced, shown and the setting for countless films and television programs. Sydney also has a wide amount of references to films that have been set in the city, including Finding Nemo, which was set in Sydney Harbour but suprisingly the address that Dory remembers does not really exist.

[edit] Sydney communities and subcultures

[edit] Ethnic communities

Examples of ethnic communities in Sydney include;

While such ethnic groupings exist, these are only general representations of the relative distribution of ethnic groups in Sydney. So, for example, while there are many Asians in Eastwood, the majority of the population is still of a European background. Areas with a large proportion of people born overseas and with non-English speaking backgrounds include Auburn, Fairfield, Liverpool, and Bankstown. Generally Western European and North American born people have settled around the Lower North Shore and eastern suburbs, Middle Eastern people around the Lakemba-Auburn region, Indo-Chinese in the south-western suburbs, South Asians around Parramatta and the south east, and North East Asians in major nodes such as Hurstville, Burwood, Strathfield, Chatswood, Eastwood, Campsie and the Central Business District.

Apart from English, the 30 most widely spoken languages in Sydney are: (2004)[citation needed]

  1. Arabic
  2. Cantonese
  3. Greek
  4. Italian
  5. Vietnamese
  6. Mandarin
  7. Spanish
  8. Tagalog
  9. Korean
  10. Hindi
  11. Croatian
  12. Macedonian
  13. Serbian
  14. Turkish
  15. Indonesian
  16. Maltese
  17. German
  18. Polish
  19. Assyrian
  20. Russian
  21. French
  22. Persian (Farsi)
  23. Tamil
  24. Portuguese
  25. Samoan
  26. Japanese
  27. Khmer
  28. Hungarian
  29. Armenian
  30. Bengali

All languages above have over 5000 speakers in the city; Arabic and Cantonese both have over 150,000 speakers.

[edit] The Gay Community

Sydney is famous for its gay community, centred on Oxford Street, and the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

[edit] Sex Workers

Prostitution is legal in Sydney[1] (and in much of Australia) via escort agencies and brothels.

[edit] References

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