Cirque Du Soleil Totem | Australian Tour

Cirque du Soleil returns to Australia with a spectacular show presented under the much-loved blue and yellow Big Top.

TOTEM traces the awe-inspiring journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly.

The cast features 45 performing artists from 16 countries specialising in many breathtaking acrobatic acts. TOTEM marks Cirque du Soleil’s second collaboration with acclaimed theatre and film director Robert Lepage following KÁ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Somewhere between science and legend, TOTEM explores the ties that bind mankind to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential.

SHOW DATES:

Sydney, NSW	Opens on October 28, 2014
Melbourne, VI	Opens on January 21, 2015
Brisbane, QL	Opens on April 10, 2015
Adelaide, SA	Opens on June 11, 2015
Perth, WA	Opens on July 31, 2015

Get Tickets Now!

Metro Hotels have ideal nearby Show Accommodation  in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth

Sydney Morning Herald Review of Totem | Cirque Du Soleil

Every night during Cirque du Soleil's performance of Totem, Pascal Sioui, the head of automation, straps a chunky black and yellow box to his right hip. In its centre is a big red button surrounded by three words: "Stop Stop Stop"

Sioui, in charge of "everything that moves", has not had to push the button many times. In his 15 years with the world's biggest and best-known circus company, only two shows have been cancelled.

"I would say I have looked after about 4000 performances in 95 cities," he says, tapping his iPad screen to make the set's 4500-kilogram mirrored hydraulic bridge rise like a scorpion's tail.  "We stopped the show in Washington because the wind was picking up and it was too dangerous to use the tent. Safety is No. 1." 

Totem's close-knit troupe of 120 cast and crew  from 14 countries features people who perform and create astounding, gravity-defying acts of visual and physical wizardry. It also includes coaches, creative artists, physiotherapists, cooks and technicians.

But when you have presented a show 1500 times in 25 cities during four years of touring, with three more to come, another priority creeps in: how to keep everyone, including accompanying spouses and children, happy and sane on such an epic theatrical roadtrip.

The Rolling Stones | Live in Sydney

The Rolling Stones today confirmed the rescheduled dates and venues for the postponed Australian and New Zealand leg of their ’14 On Fire’ Tour.

Ticket holders who are able to attend the rescheduled date need take no action, their existing ticket will remain valid and their location within the venue will remain unchanged.

Fans unable to attend the new shows are asked to secure a refund from their original point of purchase prior to 5pm (local time to the venue) on Monday 28 April, 2014. Refunds can be secured through:

Sydney | Ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

Lead-up to the Tour Down Under:

Production manager Dale Skjerseth - who has been involved with the band since 1994 - says it takes a lot of work to get everything perfect. 

"We’ll be up to around 200 (people) working today, tomorrow, up to the prep for the show and then of course the building will expand. Security ushers, and all the rest of the staff will come in," Dale said on Wednesday afternoon.

"It’s a well oiled machine but we all have to get the joints moving."

Dale says the crew won’t know the specifics of the set list until moments before the show starts.

"They’ve been rehearsing so many songs, we really don’t know what it’s going to be… Of course there will be the favourites and the things added in and stuff they haven’t done,"

"They look back at what they did before years ago when they played here. They think about it and it’s just gotten better every time they’ve gone out."

Promoter Tony Cochrane also confirmed that Jimmy Barnes will be healthy enough to support the Stones after the Cold Chisel singer underwent back surgery last month.

UFC Fight Night SAT 8TH November | Sydney, Australia

The fans and the fighters demanded it, and on November 8 in Sydney, Australia.

The UFC FIGHT PASS main event will be a five-round clash of middleweight contenders, as Luke Rockhold meets heated rival Michael Bisping.

The number five ranked Rockhold, a former Strikeforce champion, is coming off back-to-back finishes of Costas Philippou and Tim Boetsch, and he is promising another quick end when he faces Manchester, England's Bisping, a perennial contender who got back in the win column with an impressive August stoppage of Cung Le in Macao.

EVENT DETAILS: SAT 8 NOV 2014 11:30AM

Jake Matthews:

Jake Matthews has only been in the UFC octagon for 13 minutes and 16 seconds but he already feels he belongs.

“It won’t be long before I’m top 10. I can just feel it,” Matthews said as he prepared for his lightweight showdown against Brazil’s Vagner Rocha at UFC Fight Night in Sydney on November 7.

“I feel I belong at the UFC level and beyond. What I learnt in the Ultimate Fighter house ... I’ve increased my skill level and I know what to do.

“When you get to this level and everyone’s a black belt and everyone’s a good wrestler and a good striker, you have to be ready.

“I know all the UFC fighters in the lightweight division and I think I’m one of the most well rounded fighters.”

Epping’s Matthews, dubbed “The Celtic Kid”, understands he faces a supreme test against “Ceara”.

Rocha submitted Cody McKenzie in Round 2 of UFC Fight Night in New Orleans in 2011, but had defeats either side of that bout against Jonathan Brookins and the highly ranked Donald Cerrone.

“He’s fought in the UFC before, so that’s why it’s a step up,” Matthews said.

“He’s had three fights — won one and lost a couple — so he has experience but I’m super confident. I see it being a first-round finish with this guy. I’m a lot bigger, I’m a lot stronger and he’s coming off an injury and he hasn’t fought in over a year, so he’ll have a bit of cage rust.

Sydney Festival 2015 Line-up Announced

The Sydney Festival has launched its 2015 program — the third under Belgian born director Lieven Bertels — and it’s certainly big with 179 events delivering 490 performances in the central Sydney area and Parramatta covering circus, theatre, dance music, film and visual arts from January 8-26.

About half of these performances are free which means its $18 million budget has to go a long way.

“We only get 35% from public sources and the rest comes from box office and sponsorhsip,” says Bertels who has been critical of how far  the budget has to stretch to stage its free concerts in The Domain.

Bertels says he has found an “elegant solution” to the problem courtesy of new sponsors and has added an extra free concert in The Domain to increase it to four events.

The issue of arts sponsorship in arts management has been a hot button issue this year after the Sydney Biennale and Transfield controversy and Bertels says it’s one that everyone need be aware since the Biennale dumped its sponsor after the demands of participating artists.

“It’s a healthy debate to have. It’s one of those issues that we have to increasingly have to deal with as we look at sponsorship and philanthropy more and more when public funding is static.”

Bertels immediate challenge now, as it has always been for every Sydney Festival director, is to deliver a broad festival that appeal to locals, visitors, tourists and families on school holidays.

“It needs to be a lot of things to a lot of people,” he says, adding that Sydneysiders are always “very honest” in their feedback. “It’s great that Sydneysiders are very eloquent and they are also a very curious audience.”

Bertels’ festival approach is to introduce new names and “make introductions” as well as commission new Australian work. “We’ve commissioned 30 new Australian works over my three years”, he says.

His philosophy also includes getting out of the artists’ way once the commission is secured.

“We (festival directors) are not artists and you have to step aside.”

You can see the full program here but highlights include:

Actress Charlotte Rampling and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton will combine Sylvia Plath’s poetry and composer Benjamin Britten’s music.

Circus performer James Thierrée  is back in Sydney with Tabac Rouge with his largest work so far combining his skills as an acrobat, musician, dancer, actor, and choreographer.

Australian theatre maker Kate Mulvany is premiering Masquerade by Kit Williams for chidren and adults.

Kiss & Cry  – a dance work with a difference as two sets of hands perform a romance with cinematic projections and tiny sets.

Indian director Roysten Abel’s  The Kitchen, combines music and food with dishes made on stage from within the musicians’ instruments.

Nigerian synth pioneer William Onyeabor’s  Atomic Bomb! The Music of William Onyeaborwith a line-up  that includes Gotye, Sinkane, Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Luke Jenner(The Rapture), Alexis Taylor(Hot Chip), Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem) and Mahotella Queens.

Brazil’s Seu Jorge whose pop covers and original songs combine samba, reggae, Brazilian pop and electronics.

A screening of The Artist with its score performed live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestraand conducted by Ernst Van Tiel with composer Ludovic Bource on piano.

Hyde Park’s Festival Village will see 40 contemporary music performances and not one, but two spiegeltents.

The Domain with four concerts which includes shows by Seu Jorge, William Barton on didgeridoo with the SSO, an operatic concert from Opera Australia and  Beat the Drum: Celebrating 40 years of Triple J featuring Hilltop Hoods, The Presets, The Cat Empire, The Preatures, You Am I and more.

Sydney Festival 2015 Event Map

With the weather heating up and the line up just announced, it’s time to jump on board the Sydney Festival train!

From the city centre to the Greater West, we’ve planned an action packed eighteen days, with something for everyone this summer.

We’ve come up with a new way to explore your Festival – decide on your own route: interchange, take an express or multiple trips on your Multipack.

View all events - http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2015/all

India’s Narendra Modi to Star at Sydney’s Allphones Arena

Since becoming prime minister, Narendra Modi has performed in New York’s storied Madison Square Garden and played drums on stage in Japan.

His next big-ticket venue: Sydney’s Allphones Arena this November.

Mr. Modi will address what is expected to be a sell-out crowd at the 21,000-seat venue in Australia’s financial and commercial capital on Nov. 17 during his four-day trip to the country for the G20 summit in Brisbane.

Organizers say it will eclipse the prime minister’s biggest gig so far, when he spoke to a crowd of 18,000 people, mostly Indian-Americans, at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 28.

“This will be bigger and better,” said Balesh Singh Dhankhar one of the organizers of the reception for Mr. Modi. The Allphones Arena, built for the 2000 Olympics, “has more grandeur” than Madison Square Garden, he added.

The stadium in Manhattan is famous for hosting some of the biggest names in entertainment, like the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and “The Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

The Allphone Arena also hosts musical acts and boxing matches. In the same month as Mr. Modi’s visit, The Rolling Stones and Katy Perry will play the arena and an Ultimate Fighting Championship event will take place there.

Australia is home to around 350,000 people who were born in India, according to the latest census data from 2011. 

That was a 90% increase on the number recorded in the census in 2006, but a tenth the size of the Indian-American community in the United States.

After Mr. Modi’s speech in New York, people in Australia began asking when he would come here, said Mr. Dhankhar, a spokesman for the Indian Australian Community Foundation that is helping put on the event that was conceived only three weeks ago.

Some 14,000 people have registered in the first two and a half days of registration, according to the organizers. It will be broadcast live on Indian television channels.

“We invited Mr. Modi and said the Indian diaspora in Australia is very eager to see him,” Mr. Dhankhar added.

Tickets for the Sydney event are free and the show will start around 5.30p.m., but further details of the spectacle are under wraps right now, Mr. Dhankhar said. 

“There are a number of cultural and exciting events before the speech that would be a surprise for the audience in India and Australia. These will be wider and more surprising that at Madison Square Gardens.”

Club Swizzle | Sydney Opera House January 2014

Leave your coat and your hang-ups at the door and let the hardest working middle-aged man in show business lead you to your table.

The scent of last night’s revelry hangs in the air, hinting at what’s to come. Oh, if only you knew. This is Club Swizzle, and tonight, like every night, will be unlike any other.

After three sell-out seasons of La Soiree at the Sydney Opera House, and a rampaging run around the world, its creators return this summer with a brand new show. Loose, raw and glorious, Club Swizzle is a night of demented entertainment where the crazy gets kicked up a notch.

In the depths of the Opera House Studio, the most depraved and devious souls in show business gather around a bar where legends are made. It’s a melee of obscene cabaret, outrageous acrobatics and infectious revelry, all backed by a band with a repertoire as big as their bar tab.

Hanging onto the reigns of the chaos is Murray Hill; the man who “puts the ‘king’ back in f#*king funny”. Direct from New York, Mr Showbiz himself will corral this rollicking bevy of entertainers and keep things (only just) this side of decent.

With no stage, no rules and no regrets, there’s no place quite like it. So order yourself something stiff and get ready to dive into the deep end of debauchery at Club Swizzle.

The doors open early so come and join us for a cheeky drink at the bar pre-show .

Note: Drinks packages will be available for sale in late November.

Club Swizzle is being performed from 09 January 2015 to 15th February 2015

View Source for more information

Tourism Set to Cash In On Big Summer For International Sport

An unprecedented summer of international sport is set to boost Canberra's tourist numbers after a major decline in business stays and spending in the past year.

With seven Asian Cup football games including a quarter final, three cricket World Cup games and an extra one day International in November, Canberra's tourism boss expected locals to be joined by a mass of regional and international visitors for the sporting feast.

VisitCanberra director Ian Hill said it would be the strongest summer of sport the city had enjoyed. 

"Two absolutely world class events, and I certainly know tickets for those cricket World Cup games have been selling really well."

The National Visitor Survey released last month showed visitor nights were down 790,000 in the domestic business sector for the year to June, a drop of 37.5 per cent. Overall domestic nights were down 16.4 per cent and expenditure down 11.4 per cent, or $14 million. 

International visitor nights also fell 12 per cent, or 570,000 nights, in the same period, with expenditure down 6 per cent.

Mr Hill said the tourism authority was working closely with hoteliers and organisations elsewhere to help them package and promote events.  

"One of those [Asian Cup] games is a China [vs] Korea game; China don't play in Sydney and there's a big group of Chinese background people who live in Sydney, so we're working with some of the multicultural media in Sydney," he said. 

The tourism chief said the key to maximising the windfall for Canberra was ensuring visitors saw other attractions  during their stay, and a rejuvenated cultural and hotel scene would help.

"Places like Braddon are important, Lonsdale Street Roasters is an important place, New Acton, and with new hotels like Hotel Hotel, Peppers has just rebranded, we've seen QT do a fit out at Rydges, the Kurrajong is about to reopen after being refitted – a great location for visitors in the Parliamentary Triangle. I think visitors are seeing a new side of Canberra," Mr Hill said. 

Mr Hill said stories on last week's OECD finding that Canberra was the world's best city to live in,  trumpeted in the New York Times and elsewhere, helped spread the word. 

The Australian Hotels Association ACT recently told ABC TV that occupancy rates were at about 65 per cent, down from the same time last year, but investment was strong, with another 500-600 hotel rooms available by mid-next year. 

Miley Cyrus in Sydney | What a Tongue Twister

Past the poster of Henry V walked Miley Cyrus in a shimmering green boxer's robe, primed for the fight and accompanied by the breakfast show's weather person (In leopard print leggings. 

At breakfast. On television – and people say Miley dresses shockingly), and thence to the stage set up on the northern forecourt of the Opera House.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters who had risen pre-dawn to see the twerking, tongue-twisting, tabloid-taunting Cyrus, waited with the rising sun on our backs. Among us were several dressed like her: more men than women so attired it must be said, and not an eyelash out of place on any of the gentlemen. (No doubt inspiring yon Miley to think, as she peered through a forest of phones held high, "It yearns me not if men my garments wear/Such outward things dwell not in my desires".)

Scattered through were high school uniforms, a few pre-teens and no shortage of mothers. Real mothers too; not the type of "motherf...ers" which some reports had Cyrus referring to more than 30 times during her Melbourne concert at the weekend. 

If those mothers were bracing themselves for similar language and performance – the type of legs splayed, crotch-rubbing, drug-referencing on-stage activities which earned terms such as gynaecological and scatological – they needn't have worried.

Save for a "good f---ing morning to you guys" and a bit of hip thrusting later, when the green robe was shucked and the orange and pink leotard was allowed its moment in the sun, Cyrus was by most standards respectable, even tame.

Her singing was not merely respectable though: a powerful and more than capable voice ringing true and genuinely live. Likewise, her responses to the familiar questions lobbed at her by the two slightly awkward (as ever when a teen pop star is patronised/promoted in equal measure) Sunrise hosts were considered and a step above pat answers.

With the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop, a Madame Tussauds model of Cyrus – which for a change actually looked something like the original – set up at the back of the crowd and the bonus of a song after the cameras switched off (Coldplay's The Scientist), you could hardly complain. Unless, of course, you wanted more sinner than saint on stage.

Still, in the telling and retelling in years to come no doubt the gentlemen and women in Australia still a-bed would think themselves accursed they were not here while ever any speaks who stood by the water with us on St Miley's day.

View Source

Show Accommodation Australia | Metro Hotels

Show Accommodation Hot Deals currently available at Metro Hotels, Click to browse and view all Metro Hotels Accommodation promotions currently on offer:

Wicked Family Package at Metro Hotel Sydney Central

To celebrate the return of Wicked to the Capitol Theatre, Metro Hotel Sydney Central is offering this Wicked Family package from $205.00 Per Night

Sydney Show Package at Metro Hotel on Pitt

Accommodation at Metro Hotel on Pitt, Complimentary daily Wi-Fi, Chocolates on arrival and late check-out

Strictly Ballroom Hot Deal at Metro Apartments on Darling Harbour

Strictly Ballroom Hot Deal Apartment Accommodation at Metro Apartments on Darling Harbour staying in a one bedroom apartment with a complimentary bottle of Wine on arrival

Olympic Park Events Hot Deal at Metro Inn Ryde

Olympic Park Events Hot Deal | Metro Inn Ryde

Lion King Brisbane Hot Deal at Metro Hotel Tower Mill

Metro Hotel Tower Mill has a Great Lion King Hot Deal to you make the most of this amazing show!

Ipswich Show Package at Metro Hotel Ipswich International

Enjoy this great value Ipswich Show Package while taking in a show at the Ipswich Civic Centre, located just next door

Gladstone Show Package

Gladstone Show Package is a hot deal accommodation package available to be booked from Metro Hotel and Apartments Gladstone

Gladstone Entertainment Package at Apartments G60 Gladstone

Gladstone Entertainment Package | Apartments G60 Gladstone

Perth Show Package

Seeing a show at Crown, or a live concert at Perth Arena? Make the most of your evening Perth Show Package

Sydney Festival Accommodation

Metro Hotels is an official partner of Sydney Festival, Browse accommodation Hot Deals currently on offer from these Sydney City Metro Hotels

View Show Accommodation Promotions at Metro Hotels

Wicked Family Package at Metro Hotel Sydney Central

To celebrate the return of Wicked to the Capitol Theatre, Metro Hotel Sydney Central is offering this Wicked Family package from $205.00 including:

• One nights accommodation in a Deluxe 2x Double Bedded Room
• Daily Hot Buffet Breakfast for up to 2 adults and 2 children
• Chocolates on arrival

Metro Hotel Sydney Central is conveniently located opposite the Capitol Theatre.

Children age is 0 – 12 years old.

Valid from 1 September - 28 December 2014

**This package does not include show tickets

Melbourne Music Week 2014 Full Program Announced, And its Epic!

Back for its fifth big year, Melbourne Music Week’s 2014 program has been release today and it’s bigger and bolder than ever. The 10-day curette music program is hurting with 110 dynamic event to be held morning, noon, and night across 40 uniquely Melbourne locations.

From quirky music events in laneways, trams, power stations and elevators to experiential performances at iconic Melbourne institutions, MMW’s 2014 program celebrates the crossover between music, art, film, food and design in the country’s cultural capital.

Chair of Council’s Marketing Melbourne committee, Councillor Beverley Pinder-Mortimer said the City of Melbourne continues to work with the music industry to produce an event like no other.

“The city becomes the stage for this 10-day event which highlights the breadth of music in Melbourne. Melbourne is one of the world’s great music cities and Melbourne Music Week absolutely highlights this,” said Cr Pinder-Mortimer.

As previously revealed, this year MMW’s flagship venue, Queen Victoria Market (QVM), will transform into a vibrant performance space with an impressive line-up of local and international acts. Midnight Juggernauts will debut the Melbourne premiere of their visual and musical installation, Aerials, celebrating their tenth anniversary on Saturday 22 November.

Legendary Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance will present a night of jazz and techno music with visionary founder Mad Mike on Tuesday 18 November.

QVM will be pumping as DJ duo Pachanga Boys, the project formed by Superpitcher and Rebolledo, will be joined by Optimo on Wednesday 19 November. In collaboration with SPOOK Magazine, Guerre, Milwaukee Banks and Banoffee will take to the stage on Monday 17 November for an evening of progressive contemporary music.

Co-presented with DUST, avant-garde electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never will present his world acclaimed visual spectacle on Friday 21 November, supported by Robin Fox and his new laser show RGB.

The Operatives will present DJ Spinn and Remi for an afternoon and night beats and bass showcase on Sunday 23 November. Food will be a highlight at QVM with curated menus drawing draw from the market’s fresh local produce stalls and a rotation of restaurants from the QVM Night Market.

Chair of Council’s Arts and Culture Committee, Councillor Rohan Leppert, said MMVV celebrates local talent and works with the industry in a distinctive co-production model. “MMW is an event that gives back to the labels, artists and venues themselves.

“Over 75 per cent of artists are from Victoria, and this yea, MMW is more accessible than ever with free events making up more than half the program and 90 per cent of ticketed events are under $50,” said Cr Leppert.

Beyond the already fast-selling show at Melbourne Town Hall, German headliner Tangerine Dream will present an exclusive interactive film event at ACMI, playing the live score to the 1977 American existential film, Sorcerer. Tangerine Dream’s front man Edgar Froese will also host a panel discussion at industry event Face The Music, sharing his much-coveted musical insights with Melbourne music lovers.

The most popular night of the program in recent years, Live Music Safari, will once again awaken the city on Thursday 20 November with 14 venues opening their doors for a free night of local music. The program welcomes two new venues, The Hi-Fi and Kelvin Club, as well as expanding to nearby laneways.

MMW’s Self-Made series will return with a new program of innovative events popping up throughout the city. With surprise performances in CBD elevators, daytime musical tennis matches, DJ roller raves, and to parties with performances by yet-to-be-announced musical guests, the series supports the ingenuity and boundless talent of Melbourne’s creative community.

The MMW program boasts a series of unique one-off concerts and artistic collaborations with NGV, MPavilion, Rooftop Cinema, SWELL and Residency that reinterpret public performance spaces and blur the line between art, film, design and music.

The full MMW 2014 program is now available online at melbourne.vic.gov.au/mmw. Tickets are available from Dash Tickets via melbourne.vic.gov.au/mmw from 12:00pm today.

Melbourne Music Week 2014 Lineup

TANGERINE DREAM
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI
UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE presents TIMELINE
MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS
THE CHURCH
PACHANGA BOYS
DUSKY
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN
CUT COPY (DJ SET)
DJ SPINN
OPTIMO
TEN WALLS
REMI
ALLDAY
THE HARPOONS
LAURA JEAN
BLACK CAB
SAFIA
MILWAUKEE BANKS
AND MORE

Melbourne Music Week 2014

14th – 23rd November, 2014

Fireworks In October at Habourside, Sydney

Fireworks In October at Habourside, Sydney

See fabulous fireworks light up the Sydney night sky at Harbourside in Darling Harbour.

You don’t have to wait for big occasions like New Year’s Eve to see fireworks in Sydney.

Head to Harbourside in Darling Harbour and you’ll see fireworks most Saturday nights. Why? Because it’s the weekend and it’s time to party!

With more than 24 bars and restaurants, state-of-the-art entertainment venues and magnificent waterfront views, Harbourside is a great spot for a romantic meal, entertaining the family and partying with friends.

Relax, have fun and feast on your favourite food while the spectacular fireworks turn the night sky red, green, blue and all the other colours of the rainbow.

Upcoming Fireworks Dates:

Saturday 4, 8.30pm
Saturday 11, 9.15pm
Saturday 18 and 25 October, 9pm

Harbourside Shopping Centre, Darling Harbour, NSW, 2000