Information for the Community

The Surry Hills Festival is a vital fundraiser for the Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre (SHNC). The Centre receives funding from all three tiers of government for its various activities, but these are insufficient to cover the costs of providing services to the needy of Surry Hills.

To supplement the government support and balance the books, the SHNC relies on the annual Surry Hills Festival as well as the monthly Markets in Shannon Reserve.

To highlight the importance of the Festival in ensuring the SHNC's viability, the surplus from the Festival in the past four years has been greater than the total surplus earned by the Centre through all its activities. That is, without the Festival income, the SHNC would have run at a loss in each of these years.

The Festival is an exciting event, and attracts a lot of patrons who come along to enjoy the facilities and entertainment (on eight stages) as well browse through the 250 or so market stalls. We see the Festival as a community event, and its success is due to the generous partnership and contribution of local Surry Hills Businesses, corporate sponsors, artists and entertainers, and our local community and residents.

From 2006, the Surry Hills Festival has moved to a bigger and better home, Prince Alfred Park, Surry Hills. This move was a great success, with the park providing an amazing space for Festival goers experience the sights and sounds of the day. The Festival will remain at Prince Alfred Park in 2008, and build on the success of the previous years.

Part of the attraction of the Festival to the 90,000 or so people attending is the entertainment which is delivered from several locations within the Festival area. The event planners are sensitive to the impacts of increased noise levels during the Festival, which is why we terminate the event at 6:00pm. In our publicity, we also encourage Festival patrons to use public transport to minimise the impact on traffic and parking.

With 90,000 people anticipated on site again this year, the festival will implement several new safety strategies. The festival will be maintaining its no glass safety policy which restricts festival goers from bringing any glass bottles or containers onto the site. The festival will also introduce a strict 'No BYO alcohol' policy for the 2008 festival. This year the festival site will be completely fenced with five large entrances to the event. To ensure the festival is a safe environment for the whole community, security guards will be stationed at all the festival entries ensuring that alcohol and glass containers are not brought onto the festival site. This way we will reduce potential incidents and make sure that the all festival goers have a fun and positive experience at the 2008 Surry Hills Festival.

The Festival generates a lot of garbage, and its removal is a high priority for the organisers. Assisted by the City of Sydney, the Festival employs contract cleaners on the day of the Festival, and the day after.

Organisation of the Festival is a major undertaking, and is effectively a 12 month process. We employ a professional Festival Director for 6 months, but everyone else involved is a volunteer. A Festival planning committee meets monthly throughout the year, and on the day of the event about 100 volunteers are involved, not to mention the 100 or so performers all of who donate their time and talents to the Festival free of charge. Community members are invited to participate in the planning of Festivals and to volunteer their time in the weeks leading up to the Festival and on the day. Your suggestions on how we can improve the Festival are always welcome.

Click here to get more information on volunteering.

Photographs by Amy Mergard