Get ready Sydney, it’s that time of the year again! Sure, the summer hasn’t been as sizzling as we’re used to, but don’t count on that meaning Sydney’s annual Festival won’t be. The Sydney Festival 2012 is gearing up for its highly anticipated commencement and by the look of the lineup’s it’s going to be one jam-packed month!

This year’s festival kicks off on January 7^th giving you a good week to recover from New Years before the real celebration starts with the renowned Festival First night! From 3 till 11pm, the official opener for the city-based festival is going to be huge, boasting acts such as Holly Throsby presents See!, Manu Chao La Ventura, Washington, Gurrumul, Trocadero Dance Palace, Norman Jay and The Jolly Boys. Get your freak on and let your flag fly! This night is no-holds-barred fun and frolic in the heart of the city. It’s a MUST DO on all Sydney Festival lists!

How’s the rest of the festival shaping up? Pretty darn good. Hot music acts to see through the month include: Holly Throsby at The Famous Spiegeltent Hyde Park (Jan 12-13), Lamchop at City Recital hall Angel Place (Jan 21), and Sons & Daughters at the beloved Keystone Festival Bar (Jan 12). Treat your eardrums to sweet tunes while kicking back with a chilled brew. Doesn’t get much better.

Wanna get artsy? There’s a huge bunch of Theatre gigs to pick and choose from this year, but if you’re a real theatre buff our hot theatre pick of the festival is the Australian premiere of “‘Tis pity she’s a whore” showing at Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay between Jan 17 and 21. Why? It’s fresh off a stellar sold-out season in Paris affording it some hard earned kudos. We’re positive it won’t disappoint!

If you’re keen to get into the festival spirit but are situated further from the inner city main hub, there are plenty of cool things happening around the outskirts of our great city to make sure you don’t miss out! Our hot pick for pure festival fun and community spirit is Parramatta city’s street installation: Sustainable Garden. Located at Connection Arcade, this art-scape (with your help) will literally ‘grow’ across a ten day period. Bring along unwanted recyclable material to help artists create a lively, bright artificial greenhouse spilling through the urban landscape. It’s papier-mâché on steroids!

There really are too many cool things going on to sufficiently name them all. What’s better is there’s a tonne of FREE stuff to do! If you want to know more get a hold of a copy of the Sydney Festival guide (if you like to flip pages and circle things) or head to the Official Sydney Festival website guide for easy navigation of the remaining Dance, Visual Arts, Film and Family events going on…. YEE-HAH!

I know where I’ll be this January. See you there awesome Sydney-Siders!!