Play Me, I'm Yours

How good is the Sydney Festival? There's theatre, music, dance, film, presentations, family events and a million other things going on all throughout January - what more could you want?

The major events have been a great success, including All Tomorrow's Parties on Cockatoo Island (think Nick Cave's musical fantasyland), Films Afloat (think cult-classic films played on a floating screen to dynamic live soundtracks) and Festival First Night (think 200,000 euphoric punters partying in the city streets to the likes of Busy P & DJ Mehdi, Santogold, A-Trak and Grace Jones).

But Sydney Fest also has a plethora of other golden treats that are a little more covert, such as UK artist Luke Jerram's installation 'Play Me, I'm Yours'. In short, Jerram has placed 30 pianos around the city in some of Sydney's most unique locations. The idea was sparked from Jerram's observation that we see the same people every day on our streets, around our workplaces and in our parks but rarely stop to say hello. Out of this came a plan to use music as a catalyst for strangers to talk and to connect with one another.

So after dinner last night we decided to stroll down to one of the pianos at the iconic Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo. There was such a good atmosphere around the piano as people stopped to play or chat. Our friend Rachel popped down and treated the crowd with some Chopin, while others were happy to have a go at Chopsticks. If you're around Sydney at the moment it is definitely worth getting out to one of the pianos and experiencing it for yourself.

(All photos by Tristan Ap)















The 'Play Me, I'm Yours' project has previously taken place in England and Brazil. To find out more play a low note here or for more on Luke Jerram tickle this key here.


EC - Play it again, Sam