Live on Hickson Road: Efectos Especiales

Live on Hickson Road: Efectos Especiales by Luciana Acuña & Alejo Moguillansky (2026)

Every so often Sydney Festival gets a scorcher – and this was one to remember. Thermometers peaked at a brain-broiling 43°C around the start of this mass-participation takeover of Hickson Road, but still they came... to experience a one-off transformation of the historic streetscape into a live-action film set where cinema, dance and street party collided.

The party bangers boomed, the smoke plumed, a dancer led the charge down Hickson Road with the camera crew in hot pursuit. As punters shifted from audience to extras in a movie set, the street became a gleeful scene of dancing in the rain, diving to the ground and legging it full-pelt to keep up with a disappearing DJ on a ute.

It was a test of endurance in those infernal temperatures, but it paid off big time, our sweltering city the backdrop for a cathartic moment that was as exhilarating as it was unlike anything anyone had done before.