Photo: Sydney Festival opening – Marco del Grande

Sydney Festival is a summer affair. If one were to compose a soundtrack for it, there might be glockenspiels that twinkle like the sand stuck to your sweaty back, a bass riff that oozes like the Mr. Whippy down your cone, a guitar that soars like a cockatoo from a bushfire, and a sweet refrain that melts like bicycle tyres.

Think you can come up with something better? Go on, compose a song for Sydney Festival that reflects the festival’s motto: ‘This Is Our City in Summer’. Give it a burl and you might just land yourself in the Sydney Festival soundtrack alumni alongside Reggie Watts, Kaki King, The Middle East, Sufjan Stevens and Beach House.

Our very own Dan Zilber will be on the judging panel, as will Ralph van Dijk from Eardrum Australia, Zan Rowe from triple j, Megan Washington and Sydney Festival Director Lieven Bertels.

Your song, if chosen, will be heard by hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers through videos, online and on the air – and the best festival song gets a solid $5000. That will buy you exactly 3,745 condoms, which means that you can have protected sex with 3,745 of your brand spanking new groupies. They really thought of everything!

So, imagine all the Festival attendees pulling out their phones at once and Shazamming that amazing Sydney Festival song they keep hearing, and then your name pops up and everyone nods vigorously, looking at the person to their left, then their right, as if to say, ‘what a positively rambunctious jam!’ and then they all start hugging each other and dancing together, and you’ve just brought everyone together. It’s summer. Anything can happen.

Now go on and be that guy.

WHAT: Sydney Festival ‘Soundtrack Our Summer’ competition
WHEN: Entries open now until 7 September 2012
ALL THE DEETS: www.sydneyfestival.org.au/soundtrackoursummer