GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: This year's event in Sydney is attracting a lot more than athletes and sports lovers. Artists and performers from all over the world are in Australia, too. CNN's Hugh Williams reports on some of the sites and sounds.</s>HUGH WILLIAMS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rich global sounds, the band Gondwana, one of Australia's contributions to a weekend world music festival. Two-hundred performers from around the world have converged on Sydney for a concert called hemispheres, just one part of the Olympic's arts festival. Cities hosting the games are required to provide an arts program, and Sydney is putting on quite a show. There's dance, classical music and opera.</s>LEO SCHOFIELD, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, OLYMPIC ARTS FESTIVAL: We've reached out to the world in this festival, and we've actually, in many cases, worked intimately with other countries to create new work. In other words, Australian artists have worked with international artists to make something absolutely new, a new kind of collaboration.</s>WILLIAMS: Seeking universal appeal, the festival has a global theme. It's an alternative to the sporting events at the games, a place for people to share the international language of music.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:: Having a world-music festival helps reflect, I suppose, some of the people coming to the Olympics and some of the culture of Australia.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:: I think Olympics shouldn't be the focus. I think it should be the fact that everyone coming together is like a global community, and it's not just the sport.</s>WILLIAMS: With athletes coming to Sydney from all the world to give their best performances, these musicians, are doing the same. Hugh Williams, CNN, Sydney.
Sydney Olympics Attracting a Lot More Than Athletes and Sports Lovers