12 shows not to miss at Sydney Festival

From visual art to cabaret, and from Western Sydney to the heart of the city, here are our must-see picks from the 2020 Sydney Festival program.

French production Opening Night may have cancelled their Sydney appearance due to concerns about the city’s air quality during the ongoing bushfire crisis, but there’s still a wealth of events to see in Wesley Enoch’s fourth Sydney Festival program.

Many such works are new – no surprise given that the Festival is now the country’s leading commissioner and co-commissioner of new work. There’s also a wealth of First Nations works to see and explore – again, no surprise, given that Enoch is a proud Noonuccal Nuugi man.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts