Best of the Sydney festival 2014 – in pictures

One of the real stars of this year's festival, punk cabaret star Amanda Palmer acted as our agony aunt for the festival – you can hear her popping up with some life advice in episode three of our Sydney Festival podcast. Plus we give five stars for her show. Photograph: Anna Kucera

You want to get that seen to mate...Tim Crouch performs for the camera ahead of his performance of I, Malvolio at Carriageworks. Read our verdict here. Photograph: Anna Kucera

It's big and yellow but is it art? And does that matter? Reviewer Andrew Frost has an opinion on Florentijn Hofman's work – but do you agree? Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

Audience members queue in front of Christian Boltanski's artwork Chance – discussed in this video review – ahead of a performance at Carriageworks
Photograph: Anna Kucera/The Guardian

Two actors from the play Black Diggers rehearse for the show, which challenges the Anzac myth. Guardian Australia also caught up with writer Tom Wright and director Wesley Enoch in this video interview Photograph: Dean Lewis/AAP

Guardian Australia's Van Badham, Bill Code and Helen Davidson do their best to pose for a photo on the bouncy stonehenge inflated at Hyde Park. Hear them gasping for breath in episode one of our festival podcast. Meanwhile, critic Andrew Frost is to be found jumping about with an opinion or two in this video Photograph: Anna Kucera

A scene from the prologue of a new take on the classic Dido and Aeneas. We shot some of those lovely scenes and interviewed choreographer Sasha Waltz here. As for the show, our reviewer was less taken by it as a whole Photograph: Bernd Uhlig/Bernd Uhlig

Backstage with Sxip Shirey - composer and musical director of Limbo - before a performance at The Spiegeltent. Guardian writer Jane Howard wrote that sitting in the audience of the show was 'to be flirted with, constantly.' It seems to have worked – she gave them a good review Photograph: Anna Kucera

Scotch and Soda take a well-earned rest. We liked their circus show so much we gave it five stars . And no, we weren't drunk. In fact, we've been so busy we haven't managed to drop in on their favourite Sydney bars just yet - see if you can find the time Photograph: Anna Kucera

Interactive artwork Merchant Store was a festival highlight for little people this year – and plenty of big ones too. Andrew Frost caught up with creator Leandro Elrich during its construction at Darling Harbour Photograph: Anna Kucera

We put Justin Willman and James Galea from Band of Musicians head to head with one of our hardened team, you can see the results here. Catchup with Van Badham's review of their show – the crowd certainly loved it. Did our reviewer? Photograph: Anna Kucera

Festival goers enjoy a drink at Carriageworks' bar, Corner Stone. We recorded episode five of our podcast here to discuss shows Forklift, Gudirr Gudirr and His Music Burns, performed as part of the venue's About an Hour mini-festival. Listen to the results here. Photograph: Anna Kucera

Icelandic electronic music group Samaris perform live inside the Spiegeltent at Festival Village. We dispatched reporter Helen Davidson to tell us what she made of their performance Photograph: Anna Kucera