ART

Art Highlights

Summer Kim by Haein Kim

• Installation
• Location: St John's Anglican Cathedral Lawn

Look out big pineapple and big prawn - Parramatta has a rival “big” moment on the way. Summer Kim is a bold 4-metre-high inflatable girl that will tower above festival goers.

Growing up in Western Sydney, Australian artist Haein Kim started to notice something about the word ‘Aussie’: it’s often used to reference being a white Australian, highlighting a notion of national identity that didn’t always fit with her own. Through her brand-new work, Haein challenges this perception, advocating for a more inclusive and accurate representation of what it means to be Australian today.

Ascend by Legs On The Wall

• Performance piece
• Location: 8 Parramatta Square

One of Australia’s leading aerial companies, Legs On The Wall, presents the world-premiere of a gravity-defying aerial spectacle. Ascend will light up the skyline as four aerialists soar from the iconic sandstone pillars of 8 Parramatta Square. This isn't just a performance, it's a moment - and it's happening three times a night, every night of the festival.

The Darkness Between the Stars by Serwah Attafuah

• Installation
• Location:  Level 3 Eat Street Car Park

First exhibited at ACMI Melbourne, The Darkness Between the Stars is an immersive installation using visual effects, animation and 3D modelling to transform a car park floor into a cyber-surreal Afrofuturist dreamscape exploring climate change, land rights and the strength of West Africa's Ashanti people.

Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based on Dharug land/West Sydney, Australia. Notable achievements include her participation in Sotheby's Natively Digital: A Curated NFT auction, Apotheosis: a live motion capture experience with Soft Centre at The Sydney Opera House and a TEDX talk in Sydney on The Metaverse and Afrofuturism.

Sharp Australia is proudly supporting this artwork as the official technology partner.

Sammi by Sammi

• Installation
• Location:  Level 3 Eat Street Car Park

You think you’re the one looking, but Sammi is always watching. 
 

Sammi is an artist who creates photographic installations which infiltrate private and public spaces, taking ownership and reversing the gaze. Sammi inundates the world with manifestations of her face, spreading like a computer virus. In Sammi's world, she is the observer. 

Drawing from themes of surveillance, dictatorship and authoritarianism, Sammi's work confronts these power dynamics and reclaims the power. Even when her work is not seen, it is always watching you.

Nocturnal Rhythms of Parramatta by James Brown

• Installation
• Location: Ground Floor Eat Street Car Park

Nocturnal Rhythms of Parramatta is a digital video artwork capturing the heartbeat of the city after dark. Looping every 20 minutes and composed of time-lapse sequences captured across Parramatta at night, this piece reveals the poetic flow of pedestrian movement, traffic, and urban transformation after dark. 
Audiences are invited to sit back or wander through a space where Parramatta's micro-moments and big-city energy collide in a visual symphony of movement.

Sharp Australia is proudly supporting this artwork as the official technology partner.

Sanctuary by Skunk Control

• Installation
• Location: Lennox Bridge

Set to the soundtrack of native birds and surrounded by a luminescent garden of flowers, this beautiful installation showcases a series of birdhouses bringing colour, light and whimsy to Lennox Bridge. 

It is a place of rich colours and changing patterns. A place of respite, solace and contemplation. Welcome to Sanctuary.

AI Tarot by Laura Jade and Leslie Marsh

• Installation
• Location: Mystic Rising at Civic Arcade

An interactive fortune teller that reads your heart. Combining biometric data with AI-generated storytelling, this otherworldly installation offers personal readings through a digital tarot deck shuffled by your pulse. 

Created by artists Laura Jade and Leslie Marsh, AI Tarot explores the blurred lines between ancient mysticism and emerging technology, inviting participants to reflect on how we seek meaning in both data and the divine.
 

PLAY

D# Orchestra presented by Korean Cultural Centre

• Korean Hip Hop Dance
• Location: Eat Street Car Park Rooftop and George Street Stage

Straight from Busan, Republic of Korea, the electrifying K-Pop dance crew D#Orchestra is a must-see this year. The “D” stands for Dance, while “Orchestra” reflects the harmony of diverse performers uniting their energy on stage. Fusing K-Pop and hip hop, this high-impact performance features crew members Park Suhwa, Yun Ahyeon, Go Semin, Lee Wonyoung, and Kim Doyoun.

K-Pop Dance Random Dance Play presented by Korean Cultural Centre

• K-Pop Dance
• Location: Parramatta Town Square

K-Pop dance crews and enthusiasts from all over Sydney will converge on Parramatta Square at Lanes to create a Random Dance Play Experience on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Parramatta Square. If you love K-Pop or dance, this is a fun spectacle to watch or take part in when you hear a song you know!

Daytime Deewane by National Theatre of Parramatta

• Theatre/Performance
• Location: PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square

Set in the legendary daytime raves of the 1990s, Daytime Deewane is a tender portrait of what it means to be torn between respect and rebellion. As the dance floor fills and the afternoon unfolds, Farhan is still clutching his school bag and how Sadiq got that Motorola flip phone is a mystery only he can solve. This exhilarating play by award-winning UK writer Azan Ahmed is a tour-de-force of theatrical storytelling.

This is a ticketed event running from 16 – 25 October. For times, ticket prices and more information click here.

Saddle Club All-Nighter

• Line Dancing Workshops
• Location:  Level 2 Eat Street Car Park 

Join Saddle Club, Sydney's now-iconic queer line dancing company for a night of pop-up workshops. Attracting hundreds of party people, concrete cowboys and dance enthusiasts weekly to their Marrickville residency, they are bringing the fun to Parramatta.

Grab your cowboy boots and sequin pants or come as you are, it's time to throw-down your hoedown finest and join us at the car park party for a night of boot-slappin', whip-crackin' queer joy!