Powerhouse Parramatta will open on November 7 with a 23-day festival that puts live music alongside dance, film, food, talks and other performances. The program gives Western Sydney artists a prominent role in the new museum’s launch.
The Opening Festival will offer more than 170 programs over three weeks and four weekends. Sixty-five percent of events will be free, and the museum will stay open until 9 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday.
Music across the museum
The Rooftop Music series will use the fourth-floor pavilion as a sunset performance space overlooking Parramatta and Western Sydney. Its program includes Country Always, a Diwali day party curated by South Asian collective Kerfew, Three Rivers Ensemble, Beat Kitchen Records, BOY SODA and First Nations violinist and composer Eric Avery with salllvage.
Elsewhere, Sydney hardcore band SPEED will perform on November 13, followed by Tamil-Swiss artist Priya Ragu on November 14. ABC Radio Australia host Hau Lātūkefu will end a day of public broadcasting programs with a DJ set.
Nonprofit label Music in Exile, which supports Australian musicians with lived experience of migration, will host a free rooftop showcase featuring sound artist akka, Reuben Lewis, Maissa Alameddine, Mahya Panahi, Ashkan Shafiei, Sui Zhen and Heart Armour. Choral performances will accompany British artist Es Devlin’s installation Come Home Again, and the program also includes Jannawi Dance Clan.
Western Sydney participation
The museum is more than 20 kilometers west of Sydney’s central business district. Fifty-one percent of the festival’s collaborators come from Western Sydney, and more than 1,200 people will take part across its music, performance, food, film, science and design programs.
