SOFT CENTRE 2025: A City-Wide Convergence of Sound, Performance and Ideas
Image credit: Soft Centre x Carriageworks x Vivid. Photo: Jordan Munns. Courtesy of the artist and Soft Centre
Sydney is about to be rewired. From 28–31 August, SOFT CENTRE unveils its most ambitious edition yet, dissolving the usual festival borders and spreading itself across five venues, six distinct events, and four intense days. At its centre: a wave of sound, light, and performance that places the city within a new global sphere of experimental culture.
Now in its eighth year, SOFT CENTRE has outgrown the compressed intensity of a single-day spectacular. “It was a very conscious decision to attempt a multi-day, multi-venue format,” reflects Artistic Director Thorsten Hertog. “This is our eighth festival, and we were interested to see if there is an appetite for a destination festival in Sydney that incentivises interstate travel, where people can immerse themselves in various Sydney subcultures across multiple days, rather than just fly in, fly out.”
This reframing turns the festival into a kind of pilgrimage. Each day guides audiences through different worlds: Stelarc’s transhumanist workshop, a night of expanded cinema at Chauvel, the intellectual gravity of Discourse at St. Barnabas, and finally, the ecstatic release of the Festival Day at White Bay Power Station before closing with Ryoji Ikeda’s monumental precision.
Image credit: White Bay Power Station. Courtesy of Soft Centre
The White Bay Power Station itself has become the festival’s symbolic core. “The crown jewel of the program,” Hertog explains. “It’s a giant former coal factory on the water in Rozelle on Wangal land. Europe is renowned for having decommissioned industrial spaces repurposed for art and music. And now Sydney has one.”
But SOFT CENTRE resists being reduced to mere spectacle. Its ethos lies in discovery and collision. “Something that I've been really passionate about is the element of discovery in the festival landscape,” notes Artistic Director Jemma Cole. “What gets me excited is going to a festival where I only know one or two artists in the lineup. Our program is purposely extremely broad and quite niche.” Hertog describes the festival as a rare crucible where subcultures meet, intermingle, and briefly dissolve their boundaries. “SOFT CENTRE is this one moment in the year where all these different subcultures collide into an incredible melting pot of ideas.”
More than 40 artists occupy the monumental White Bay site: American experimental rapper Pink Siifu, Tanzanian Singeli innovators Queen Asher & Rehema Tajiri, Dutch electronic shapeshifter upsammy, Swiss performance troupe Young Boy Dancing Group, dubstep architect Coki, and the ecstatic transcendental black metal of Liturgy. Site-responsive works amplify the vast space - Robin Fox’s laser symphony Triptych, House of Vnholy’s collaborative installation Ecstatic Utopian Fantasy, and kinetic light sculptures by Michael Candy and 404.zero. The scope and expansive nature of the festival seems never-ending.
Despite its scale, hierarchy is intentionally broken down. “There are some absolute well-worn veterans of performance art; Stelarc, Robin Fox, these people who I consider to be my heroes and real pioneers,” Hertog admits. “But we also have a lot of space for emerging artists, and have put those artists in prime-time spots. There aren’t many festivals giving the platform and the resources to emerging artists to push their practices to new heights.”
Image credit: Soft Centre x Carriageworks x Vivid. Photo: Jordan Munns. Courtesy of the artist and Soft Centre
Partnerships with NTS Radio, Berlin’s CTM Festival, Melbourne’s Liquid Architecture and Sydney’s grassroots club Miscellanea showcase SOFT CENTRE’s unique ecology, oscillating between major institutions and fiercely independent networks. This tension between institutional backing and underground independence defines the festival’s spirit. “We really believe that hedonism and intellectual stimulation are two sides of the same coin,” says Hertog. “We're just interested in tickling your brain from multiple angles.”
Looking forward, Hertog hints at deeper expansion: “The format this year is the foundation of how we want to expand. We want it to become a destination festival, unlike others that exist across Australia, one that’s championing emerging artists and experimental art and ideas.” Year-round artist development and longer-run installations are already in view.
At a time when Sydney’s cultural calendar is overwhelmed with mega-festivals, SOFT CENTRE insists on something different: a live experiment in cross-pollination. “It’s kind of like this live art experiment, with all of these different converging communities and art forms,” Cole reflects. “They all kind of bleed and feed into each other and create this holistic experience.”
SOFT CENTRE can’t give you the short, shiny elevator pitch that the world craves. To grasp the breadth of its vision, you’ll simply have to step inside and experience it for yourself.
SOFT CENTRE 2025 runs 28–31 August across Sydney. Full program and tickets available at softcentre.com.au
