2017 FBi SMAC Awards winners announced

Image: Diabolique Photography

The winners of the 2017 FBi SMAC (Sydney Music, Arts & Culture) Awards have been announced, with thousands voting in the across the publicly decided awards.

The SMAC awards, which have categories recognising musicians, performers, restaurants and events that shaped Sydney’s creative culture last year, were held at Carriageworks yesterday.

Hosted by FlexMami, the ceremony saw live performances by Body Type, Okenyo and Party Dozen, before Sally Rugg was announced as 2017 SMAC of the Year.

Rugg was the leader of GetUp’s YES Campaign in 2017, which helped lead to a postal vote result and subsequent legislative change.

"A city’s culture is made up of countless moving parts. It is the result of complex interactions and intersections and whilst individuals can assert a certain influence, often the most effective tool we have in shaping our culture is through community," said FBI managing director Clare Holland.

"At its core, community is what FBi Radio is about. Communities provide space for expression and connection, they incubate ideas and fulfil the most human of needs - the need to belong.

"Built on the strength that belonging engenders, communities can grow into movements, bringing more and more people together until their ideas become common sense and the culture is changed forever.  

"Our 2017 SMAC of the Year winner shares our belief in the power of community. She played a crucial hand not only in bringing her community’s ideas resoundingly into the mainstream, but in codifying them in the law of the land.

"She helped build a broad coalition around the idea that Marriage Equality is a necessary ingredient of any culture that values equality, fairness and expression.

"Through the community that she fostered, those alienated and brutalised by the campaigns surrounding the vote found the strength and support to endure. And to prevail."

Full list of SMAC winners, below, and to read more about them head to the FBi website.

RECORD OF THE YEAR

Cloud Control - Zone

BEST SONG
Presented by APRA AMCOS 
Rainbow Chan - ’Let Me’

NEXT BIG THING
Body Type

BEST LIVE ACT
Presented by Young Henrys
Body Type

BEST MUSIC EVENT
Presented by 42BELOW
Soft Centre

BEST ARTIST 
Angela Goh

BEST ARTS PROGRAM 
Liveworks 2017 - Performance Space

BEST ON STAGE 
Bennelong - Bangarra Dance Theatre

BEST EATS 
Cornersmith Annandale

SMAC OF THE YEAR
Sally Rugg