It's Sydney Town Hall, but not as you know it. The venerable old building is about to morph into a fantasia of psychedelic puppets and androids, punk rockers and rollerskate dancers, where you can dive beneath Antarctic ice and voyage through space in a giant skull before bumping into movie megastars including Vanessa Redgrave and Ben Mendelsohn.
Inside the nightly party at Sydney Film Festival's Hub, it might be tricky sometimes to tell what's real.
The pop-up epicentre of the citywide fest comes alive nightly from Wednesday until June 18 with creative adventures expanding on the program's 288 screenings. At the heart of it all is a virtual reality experience from VR studio Badfaith allowing adventures in Senegal, outer space and the Bates Motel and encounters with dinosaurs, Japanese robots and nameless things that lurk beneath beds – all by donning a headset.
"Some of the works are experimental and others are just really cool experiences that you'd likely never be able to do without VR, like diving under the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica," says Badfaith's Leo Faber. "You strap on a headset and go on this 40-minute journey into a wonderland of global creativity."
The Hub's nightly programme of talks and parties includes sessions with cinema luminaries – including the very real Redgrave and Mendelsohn – and post-screening discussions with directors and filmmakers. Film-themed parties include a punk celebration of Derek Jarman's Jubilee and a Roller Boogie Party inspired by Kate Hickey's Roller Dreams with Alex Dimitriades on the decks, while the Go-Betweens' music powers a bash hailing the world premiere of Kriv Stenders' documentary about the indie icons.
The Hub is open to the public evenings and select daytimes and events are free, except the VR sessions. Discount tickets ($10) to select screenings are available at the Hub Box Office daily.
Sydney Film Festival is on from June 7 to 18; sff.org.au.