Powerhouse Parramatta Western Sydney: Thousands Attend Opening Day
Thousands of visitors filled the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta on its opening Saturday, packing exhibits and performances. Western Sydney residents called the museum instantly iconic and a long-awaited step toward cultural equity for the region.
Thousands of people poured into the new Powerhouse Parramatta on its opening Saturday, filling every room of the $1 billion museum in western Sydney. Visitors of every age and background joined a day of programs and performances.
Crowds surged into the exhibits as soon as doors opened. They gathered around performers with phones raised, queued for food and drinks, and sat in every available chair.
The public welcome was swift and warm, despite delays and cost blowouts that have hung over the project.
Water, shopping malls and first-in-line fans
Wade Penman emerged from the indoor wading pool on the third floor, part of the Overflow exhibit. It is a First Nations-led exhibition on "living principles of Water Country". The ankle-deep pool was full of giggling children.
"I feel transported, to somewhere I don't even know if I will get to," Penman said. He had watched the building go up for weeks, months and years. "It's a stunning building, instantly iconic."
Overflow is one of five launch exhibits. Another, The Mall, looks at the history and development of shopping centres.
Marie-Louise Jolicoeur and her husband Tony Sunners left The Mall grinning. "It was incredible," Jolicoeur said. "There's a lot of things that made us reminisce and think back to our own childhood."
Sunners said he had not expected to be so impressed. "The architecture is just stunning," he said.
A cultural landmark for the west
Many visitors came from western Sydney to see the region's biggest cultural addition in a generation. Stuart and Helen McIntyre, who recently moved to Parramatta, were first in line before the doors opened.
"I think it's an exciting time for Parramatta," Stuart McIntyre said, pointing to work done along the foreshore.
Penrith resident Kathy Stock walks past the site every Monday while working nearby. "So it was like, oh, finally!" she said.
David Borger, executive director of Business Western Sydney, framed the opening in civic terms. "We haven't done something like this since the Opera House, but there's a new House in town," he said.
"People in western Sydney are just as creative, just as interested in the arts as anyone else, and it's about time they got better access to it," Borger said.
Esther and Luis Ponce De Leon came to look before bringing any of their eight grandchildren. "We always went to the Ultimo Powerhouse," Esther Ponce De Leon said.
