Sydney Festival Event Management: Dimensions, Stakeholders & Analysis

This report examines the Sydney Festival within the theoretical framework of event management, highlighting its type, dimensions, and associated attractions. It analyzes categorization indicators such as form, content, location, size, budget, and the number of participants. The report identifies key stakeholders, including the director, governor, board members, and event partners, detailing their roles in conceptualizing, promoting, and managing the festival. Special emphasis is placed on celebrating indigenous cultural values, as demonstrated through initiatives like Bayala-Language Classes. The conclusion emphasizes the Sydney Festival's significance as a large-scale cultural event that caters to a diverse audience, with its content carefully curated by stakeholders to ensure broad appeal.

Running head: SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND EVENT MANAGEMENT
SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND EVENT MANAGEMENT
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SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND EVENT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
This paper examines the Sydney festival in the backdrop of the theoretical framework
of event management. January is considered as the best time to visit Sydney as the city
becomes incandescent with the biggest festival of Australia, the Sydney festival (Sydney
destination 2017). This paper aims to discuss the type, dimension and associated attractions
of the Sydney festival, analysis of categorization indicators that includes discussion on the
form and content of the Sydney festival, location and size of the event, estimated budget,
number of participants and event stakeholders and their role in the Sydney festival.
Event Brief
Type, dimension and associated attractions of the Sydney Festival
The selected event that will be analyzed is the Sydney festival that is an annual three-
day event in Sydney. The Sydney festival is a three-day extravaganza in Australia and is
considered a popular festival. The main attractions of the event include The Stars in
Parramatta Park, Opera in the Domain, Circus City in Prince Alfred Square, Sydney Trapeze
School and free performance by the Legs on the Wall.
Brief analysis of the categorization indicators
The form of Sydney festival is a carnival-like event that brings together families and
loved ones under one roof in a celebratory mood. The value content strategy of the Sydney
festival is that defines the personality. There have been international artists whose stage
presence and dynamics with the audience have elevated the appeal of the event among the
people of Sydney. There is the virtual reality Ghost Train, Karaoke Counsel that gives the
audience to showcase their talent, Glitterbox, village pools, Temple of Din comprising of
eclectic artworks and the much popular 10 Minute Dance Parties (Sydney destination 2017).

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The event is promoted in a manner such that it posits a carnival like image for the interested
visitors.
Location and Size
The Sydney festival was held in Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park which is
considered as the heart of Sydney (Csapo 2012). Other locations for the event include the
Domain and the Sydney Town Hall The festival generously made use of different venues like
the Riverside Theatres, Carriageworks and the Sydney Opera House. The event is organized
on a massive scale and features all kinds of attractions that would appeal to the visitors.
Budget considerations
More than 400 million AUD is spent on the Sydney Festival every year.
Number of participants
The number of participants for the Sydney Festival is approximately 500.
Event Stakeholders and their involvement in the Sydney Festival
According to Getz and Page (2016), stakeholders are groups or individuals whose
decision and inputs have a special value in the organization, production, execution and
management of the event. There are differ kinds of stakeholders like primary stakeholders or
secondary stakeholders and internal and stakeholder or external stakeholder (Yeoman,
Robertson, Ali-Knight, Drummond and McMahon-Beattie 2012). The stakeholders of the
Sydney festival was Wesley Enoch who is the current director of the concerned event, His
Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd) who is the Governor of
New South Wales and the patron of the Sydney Festival, the board of directors chair, David
Kirk MBE who is the managing partner of the event. Other stakeholders of the event are

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Professor Larissa Behrendt who is the Professor of Law and director of Research, University
of Technology, Sydney, David Borger who is the Western Sydney Director and Paddy
Carney who is the Partner of PWC Australia. Angela Clark who is the former director of the
Digital Network, Darren Dale, producer of Blackfella Films, Mathhew Melhuish, CEO and
Diana Ellert who is the non-executive director who were the other stakeholders of the event.
The CEO and the event partners were responsible for conceptualizing the event and deciding
on the contents that should be featured in the event. Personalities like Angela Clark and
Paddy Carney provided their suggestions and recommendations on the contents that may be
featured in the event. Matthew Melhuish who has more than 30 year experience in
advertising and marketing provided is inputs regarding the promotion of the event through
flash mob, advertising on television and radio channels, social networking sites like
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Tourism Australia 2017). The involvement of David
Borger was in the form of catalyzing discussions on issues that foster economic growth in
western Sydney. Since Wesley Enoch is the director of Sydney Festival, there was a special
emphasis on celebrating the indigenous cultural values of Australia. This was witnessed in
the form of Bayala-Language Classes where visitors could learn aboriginal languages free.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be stated that the Sydney Festival is a popular cultural festivals in
Sydney and one of the biggest festivals held in Australia. The event is held on a large-scale
and the contents of the festival is decided by the various stakeholders keeping in mind the
aesthetics of the audience. The variety of features indicate that there is something for
everyone.

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References
Csapo, J. (2012). The role and importance of cultural tourism in modern tourism industry.
In Strategies for tourism industry-micro and macro perspectives. InTech.
Getz, D. and Page, S., 2016. Event studies: Theory, research and policy for planned events.
Routledge.
Sydney destination. 2017. About - Sydney Festival 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2018/about.
The Five Best Festivals in Sydney and NSW. 2018. The Five Best Festivals in Sydney and
NSW - Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@do_suri/the-five-best-festivals-
in-sydney-and-nsw-92cb63ee95f1 [Accessed 2018].
Tourism Australia. 2017. Sydney Festival 2017 - Tourism Australia. [online] Available at:
https://www.australia.com/en/events/festivals-and-celebrations/sydney-festival.html
[Accessed 2018].
Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S. and McMahon-Beattie, U. eds.,
2012. Festival and events management. Routledge.