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Symphony Under the Stars will return to the Sydney CBD for the first time in eight years after the flagship event was given a last-minute lifeline to run another year.
The Sydney Festival concert was cancelled for 2026 after Parramatta City Council pulled its $400,000 annual support from the hugely popular community event which has historically closed the festival and set the tone for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s annual season.
William Barton performing original works as part of Sydney Symphony Under the Stars 2024.
Days out from the announcement of Sydney Festival’s upcoming program – the first for director Kris Nelson – comes confirmation the Symphony under the Stars will go ahead at Darling Harbour’s Tumbalong Park and not western Sydney, its home since 2018.
The event will be shifted to the festival’s middle weekend on Saturday, January 17, and will feature footage from performances across the years to celebrate the festival’s 50th birthday. The concert, which has been running for more than four decades, traditionally ends with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, accompanied by fireworks.
Placemaking NSW, the state agency whose remit lies in activating waterfront sites such as The Rocks, Barangaroo and Darling Harbour, Luna Park and Pyrmont, stepped in to offer Darling Harbour stage.
“We maintained positive and constructive discussions with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, who shared our commitment to ensuring the event was not lost,” Nelson said. “Ultimately, through the collaboration of Sydney Festival, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and with the support of Placemaking NSW, which manages the Tumbalong Stage, we were able to secure the concert for 2026.
“We’ve not received additional funding to make this edition happen, and we’d welcome it. In fact, we’re still raising funds for it. We’re ensuring that Sydneysiders will have access to the event in this very special edition of the festival.
“It really came down to shared commitment. Everyone recognised that this event holds a special place in Sydney’s cultural life, and there was a strong will to see it continue.”
Cultural commentator and political scientist Dr Andy Marks, who has long championed more equitable funding outcomes for suburban and rural NSW, wondered why funding could not have been found to restage the event in Parramatta. He had called on Create NSW to breach the funding gap to ensure Sydneysiders who lived beyond the CBD were not disenfranchised.
“The orchestra’s mission is to ‘make the magic of live orchestral music accessible to everyone’,” he said. “The real magic is how arts-drenched inner Sydney gains yet another cultural event at the expense of the rest of the state.”
Sydney Symphony said it was disappointed that funding support previously provided for Symphony Under the Stars in western Sydney could not be secured, but was delighted to continue this “much-loved highlight of Sydney’s summer calendar”.
It said the orchestra remained dedicated to performing in western Sydney in 2026, with concerts programmed at the Sydney Coliseum throughout the year, and at the Newcastle Civic Centre and Newcastle Town Hall, led by conductor-in-residence Benjamin Northey.
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Symphony Under the Stars was first staged at The Domain in 1983 before relocating permanently to Parramatta Park seven years ago to make arts more accessible to Sydneysiders living outside the CBD, and had been underwritten by donations, including those from council.
Parramatta Council is now prioritising community events such as Australia Day and New Year’s Eve, and funding additional free, family-friendly events, such as Carols in Parramatta Park and a winter celebration. Parramatta Lanes, its signature street festival, drew 335,000 over four nights this month.
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