If you've ever been to the Eveleigh Railway Workshop, you'll know it's a pretty special place, brimming over with history and full of massive, abandoned manufacturing machinery. It's been out of use since 1988, but this event is bringing new life to the 130-year-old blacksmith forge.
Staged by Eveleigh Works with Underbelly Arts and the City of Sydney, Caldera brings together burlesque, interactive art installations, experimental music and cocktails. Director Laurence Rosier Staines isn't revealing too many details about what we should expect from the art, but he says the event is inspired by festivals like Dark Mofo, so we're anticipating it'll be pretty fiery – in both a literal and figurative sense.
The idea is that you wander among the steam hammers, cranes and blast furnaces and encounter the art and performances as you go along. There's burlesque from Zelia Rose, a vocal performance from Tanzer, a new musical work for electrified anvil by Marcus Whale and Bree van Reyk, and an Airsticks performance by drummer Alon Ilsar. The event is designed by Hugh O'Connor and Charlie Davis, and features lighting by theatrical wiz Alex Berlage.
There are two sessions each night that Caldera is running – one at 8pm and another at 10pm for the nightowls among us – and each session is limited to 200 people.