The Nielson is a small chamber sized concert venue in the arts district of that are housed in the old Wharves of Sydney. There are quite a few lorminent Australian arts organisations that call this area home, such as Bell Shakespeare and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
I was in the area recently for a concert during the Sydney Festival, and they had dressed up one of the anchored ships outside in some pretty interesting regalia! I'm not sure if it was for the festival, but there was also some children's events in the area at the time.... So possibly!
... And these are definitely not pirate flags!
The Nielson concert hall is upstairs on the second level... And keeping in mind that this was built as an industrial Wharf... So the second level is quite a number of steps quite steeply up! Of course, you could take the lifts... But I do prefer the stairs if I can!
The audience holding area is quite nicely done up in a wood style... And in this area, there is ample seating and a bar. The concerts do range from metal bands through to small chamber ensembles, so quite a range of different audiences that pass through here!
A few backstage shots... This is the backstage area, again suitable for smaller ensembles with lots of space to place things like instruments... But oddly enough, Not sound proofed fully from the main stage!
Just behind the stage area in a completely different sound locked area is the artists dressing room. Spacious and well equipped, but definitely for smaller ensembles!
And the audience area, nice raked seating... And it does seem to be comfortable, not the most comfortable, but good for shorter length concerts at least.
... And finally, the stage itself at the bottom of the raking, and surrounded by the gallery. It is a very comfortable place to play in, and there is an artificial acoustic in play... Which is can be quite subtle and is definitely quite enjoyable to play in, as the room itself already has an acoustic to it. I've generally hated playing artificial acoustics if the sound is very very different to the natural acoustic, as that makes your brain play tricks on you!