Terminal Projekt is a disco tick

Sonia Clarke headed along to Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal for some sporadic garagey brilliance: 

The last weekend of this year’s Vivid festival saw record crowds surge into Sydney’s Circular Quay, creating the unusual situation of trying to seek a little peace and quiet (yes, I am that old) inside a club.

In the midst of all the family fun going on in the Quay, Terminal Projekt’s hugely anticipated takeover of the Overseas Passenger Terminal felt incongruous, a bit like giving GoodGod a night at the Opera House. Which perfectly explains why I love Vivid. Much like the Emerging Artists in Residence program at London’s venerable Southbank, which sees a new-music takeover of institutions like the Royal Festival Hall, Vivid mixes and matches tradition with emerging creativity. Saturday’s line-up included dOP, Jimmy Edgar and Sepalcure, all set against the backdrop of the lit-up Opera House.

Having said that, Terminal had its flaws. The much-hyped light show turned out to be a Crystal Maze-style effect behind the DJ box, which generated horrible flashbacks to those poor souls collecting gold tickets in the 90’s. The music had its moments of garagey (is that a word? Hope so) brilliance, with Jimmy Edgar a particular highlight, but also veered into fairly repetitive house music at times. Perhaps as a consequence, the dancefloor was filled with punters busting out moves more suited to Ministry of Sound circa the 90’s than present day Sydney, which was hugely entertaining.

All in all, I’d give it an emphatic disco tick with some room for improvement.

Words and pictures by Sonia Clarke