Friday, 3 January 2025
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, Walsh Bay
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Thank you, Olivia ^[1]

And thank you Uncle Matthew for the traditional Smoking Ceremony, and Uncle Allen for the Welcome to Country.

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

I greet you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of this sacred place on which we gather. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging.

As we gather here this morning with a sense of excitement and expectation, I’ve asked myself two questions: first, is there no end to creativity? Strictly, that’s a rhetorical question—rhetorical because the answer is right here before us today. If it were otherwise, the Sydney Festival would not be on the brink of its 50^th Festival, coming up in 2026. 

The second question I ask myself is this: Why does this island nation of ours—a day’s travel from most places—have so much exceptional creativity?

There is no single answer to that question and, as I look around, I’m sure that you are coming up with your own. One thought is that it is because we are not hemmed in by tradition.

Another is that we rejoice in an indigenous creativity which has no equal anywhere in the world—a uniqueness that transcends the bounds of time.

There is our interculturalism. 

There is also a freshness and an energy—perhaps because of our sunny climate.

And there is an openness to new ideas.

But, whatever the reason or reasons, the question will always be relevant because it is that creativity which makes the Sydney Festival our nation’s premier international arts festival. A creative exceptionalism which is, itself, a national treasure. 

With this year’s Festival comes a bittersweet moment; it’s Olivia Ansell’s last. Leaving us as director at this, her fourth, Olivia has expanded the Sydney Festival’s legacy of excellence, bringing to it her own distinctive creativity. Indeed, to have any sense of creativity during COVID was a feat in itself; but it was her determination that landed the Festival during those COVID years, with the support of her Festival team, which deserves special praise.

Olivia, for your commitment to opening wide the possibilities of a Festival in all its bewitching forms in four successive years, the deepest thanks, warmest congratulations, and best wishes for your future endeavours in Toronto.

To the artists—the familiar and beloved names, the new and exciting voices—that Olivia and her team have brought together, we stand in awe of your talent and creativity.

To those behind the scenes, for your planning and adaptability, for wrangling the logistics, you make the Festival happen, the most heartfelt of thanks too.

To the Festival team generally, thank you for your sensitivity to cost of living pressures—a legacy of understanding, which the Festival has always had, that the Sydney Festival is for the people.

It is with the utmost delight that I declare the 2025 Sydney Festival officially open.

[1] Ms Olivia Ansell, Festival Director, Sydney Festival