Creative collective swings into action

The event has more than doubled in size since its inaugural festival last year, with 250 artists in residence.

"There's just been an explosion of interest," said the festival's director, Imogen Semmler. "We've basically packed it out. We've got artists rehearsing in dressing rooms, outside the venue and on the platforms above the theatres."

Despite its popularity with artists and audiences - last year 1800 people attended - the festival runs on a shoestring budget of less than $80,000 and its future is uncertain. Its only government funding is a $15,000 grant from the City of Sydney.

"It's a real battle just to keep going," Semmler said. "After this, we're going to have to take some time to think about whether we can make it happen again because we're all so stretched. I'd love to be able to pay the artists and the crew, but at this stage it's just not possible."

For the participants, most of whom work other jobs to support their art, Underbelly is a chance to perform in a state-of-the-art venue and experiment with the facilities. Mary Budimir and Nick Mainsbridge, of the electronic music act Deprogram, usually work in a shed at Budimir's home. They used the workshop to develop a program that translates their music into visual effects projected onto a dome-shaped screen. Budimir, the group's singer, wears sensors on her fingers to control the projected colours and the sound effects.

"We haven't had much sleep in the last little while, but it is just fantastic for us to have the time and the venue to do something so unusual and so ambitious."

In the foyer, the artists Diego Bonetto, Karl Logge and Tessa Rapaport are staging a less technological exhibition. For The Hanging Gardens And Other Tales, they have collected 58 pot plants from local residents.

"It's all about letting people tell their stories," Bonetto said. "Some people gave the last plants their grandmother gave them before she died. Others were salvaged after being dumped in the street. They've all come from that inner-west neighbourhood and we've discovered that some even came from the same cutting."

Other works on display include experimental films, hip-hop acts and a sideshow theatre in an inflatable tent. Many of the works will still be unfinished come Saturday's opening.

"We make Underbelly about celebrating art and not necessarily about the finished product," Semmler said. "The whole point of the lab is that the public can come down and watch things being made and rehearsed. It's not necessarily about what you see in its finished state."

Photo: Jon Reid - Free fall … Strings Attached perform Sound In Motion