SYDNEY, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --The 2013 Sydney Festival opened on Saturday January 5 under glorious summer skies as new Director Lieven Bertel's Day One vision sprang to life in spectacular fashion.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130116/MM42520 )

Thousands of people flocked to Day One: An Opening in Three Acts which included the arrival in Sydney's Darling Harbour of what has become the Festival's 'mascot', Florentijn Hofman's giant Rubber Duck.

In the stunning Sydney sunshine, dancers, singers, acrobats and musicians all dressed in striped pyjamas performed on a floating stage while brightly painted mini tug-boats danced a water ballet to the delight of the crowds. Thousands of duck whistles and mini rubber ducks were given out creating a sea of yellow and a near deafening 'quackophony' to herald in the Duck's arrival for the event's finale.

And the Duck did not disappoint. Much, much larger than life, the 5 storey high gleaming bright yellow Rubber Duck bobbed into the bay as the embodiment of childhood innocence and fun. It circled the bay until finally coming to rest in its home where it will stay until January 23.

As the sun went down and the temperature cooled, the focus shifted across town to the even cooler sounds of the Daptone Super Soul Revue at Sydney's famous outdoor venue, The Domain.

The cream of the famous Daptone Records label, including some of the greatest soul, funk, gospel and afrobeat artists of the last decade took Sydney by storm.

A stand out highlight of week one was Semele Walk, a radical retelling of Handel's opera Semele by Ludger Engels, featuring catwalk models with attitude and outrageous couture by the queen of punk, Vivienne Westwood.

Sydney Festival 2013 is still to welcome works by The Royal Shakespeare Company, France's Orchestre National De Jazz, the legendary David Byrne in collaboration with St. Vincent, and internationally acclaimed conductor Andre De Ridder in the revisit of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

All this, and so much more, makes our city in summer a wonderful place to be.

Sydney Festival 2013 runs January 5-27. The full program can be found on the Festival website.

To view the multimedia content, click here: http://www.multivu.com/players/English/58124-sydney-festival-2013/