Central Sydney Mayors Unite to Form “Vibrancy Alliance”
Published on 29 May 2025
The Mayors of Burwood, Canada Bay, Canterbury-Bankstown and Randwick Councils have announced the formation of a new Vibrancy Alliance, a four-council commitment to keep major cultural events, music festivals and street celebrations alive in Central Sydney.
The announcement follows reports that the City of Sydney has extended its ban on large events in key public parks. What the Vibrancy Alliance will do is continue to encourage and enable events in public spaces. Mayor of Burwood, John Faker said, “People don’t travel across the world to sit at home, they come for buzz. Our alliance guarantees we keep this buzz alive.” “Sydney’s diverse communities deserve more stages for events and expressions of art and culture. Just this year Burwood drew close to 50,000 people to its Greek Street Fair and Lunar New Year Street Party, featuring fireworks, live performances, food and more.
Already acclaimed as the city’s culinary capital and cultural playground, Burwood is the natural destination where crowds flock for unforgettable experiences.” Said Mayor Faker. Mayor of Canada Bay, Michael Megna said “Canada Bay Council would welcome day/night activated events in our area, should the City of Sydney not encourage them. We have an engaged community that flock to local events like the Ferragosto Italian street fair, lunar new year and Halloween street activation to name a few.
Our community thrives on celebrating multicultural events across the board and we look forward to expanding these in pop up places as well as our designated open space areas” Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek said parks and facilities are there for the community, and our City is open for business.
“We are centrally located in the heart of Sydney, with some magnificent parks which would be ideal to run festivals and events," he said. “Our City has just finished hosting two of the biggest events in Australia, Lakemba Nights during Ramadan which attracted more than one million people, and the international Sikh games which also pulled more than 200,000 people. “Our community, along with our local businesses and economy, are the major winners when we can put on and host events and festivals. “We pride ourselves on being a city where interesting happens and that won’t happen if you turn your back and close your parks.”
Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker said, “The City might have pulled down the shutters but the rest of Sydney is very much open. If Clover wants to deprive her residents of fun, live music and festivals then Randwick will happily welcome them to our beautiful coastline.”
-ENDS-
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