Sydney Festival Digital Archive

Nick Cave curates All Tomorrow's Parties (2009)

Born in Britain as a defiantly boutique alternative to bloated rock festivals, this first Australian edition of All Tomorrow’s Parties handed the keys to its headline act.

Taking over the industrial spaces of heritage-listed Cockatoo Island, curators Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds stitched together a dark-toned but diverse roster that included British space rockers Spiritualized, US jazz-blues icon James “Blood” Ulmer, krautrock supergroup Harmonia, reunited Australian punk icons the Saints, improvising jazz trio the Necks, Swans founder Michael Gira and Cave’s side-project Grinderman.