Opening Night Transe Express' The Lazy Kings (Les Rois Faignants)

Sydney Festival opens in 2005 with a spectacular free outdoor production at Sydney Olympic Park - 'The Lazy Kings' (Les Rois Faignants), an awe-inspiring open-air extravaganza of aerial acrobatics and carnivalesqueperformers. Over 130 performers take part in this epic, theatrical processional experience, including six witches on bicycles, nomadic kings and debonair charlatans, part of three parades led by brass bands.

The spectacular is presented by France's Transe Express, who wowed audiences with their magical performance of Celestial Bells in 2002. This free outdoor event is one of the highlights of the Sydney Festival and is expected to draw record crowds over the three days; Saturday 8, Sunday 9, and Monday 10 January, 2005.

This Sydney Olympic Park event is one of the nine events of the Sydney Festival's 'Centre Stage Series', a program of events for Greater Sydney.

For the opening of the 2004 Festival, the first time that Sydney Olympic Park and Sydney Festival had collaborated, Of Angels and Light attracted around 70,000 people across three nights. In anticipation of even larger crowds in 2005, transport, parking, catering and toilet facilities have been dramatically increased.

Sydney Festival and Sydney Olympic Park wish to advise the following for a great night out: