Farewell to the World is a 1996 concert by rock group Crowded House. The concert was recorded on the outside footsteps of the famed Sydney Opera House as a charity event to raise funds for the Sydney Children's Hospital. The event was originally scheduled to occur on the night of 23 November 1996, however was delayed one day due to rain. The concert was to be the last that the group played as the group announced their dissolution months earlier. The concert attracted a crowd of greater than 100,000 people, with some estimates of 250,000 people in attendance. Since then, several concerts have been performed there such as the Mushroom Records anniversary celebration and every Australian Idol year finale dually uses the outdoor as well as the indoor of the Opera House.

The concert was originally aired on Network Ten in Australia in November 1996 however this performance was incomplete as it did not include five songs performed from the concert due to time constraints. In December 1996, the group released the concert on VHS which included some press coverage of the band's breakup and the concert. The VHS version contained all of the same songs as the television version other than "Weather with You," which was replaced by the fan favourite song "Hole In the River."

The CD and DVD of the concert were released in November 2006 as a ten-year anniversary of the original concert. These versions were remastered and the DVD included all previous footage from the VHS but also added an interview with Neil Finn by Jana Wendt on Channel Nine's Sunday program. All of the songs were included on the DVD and CD release, including those omitted previously and the sound (and, for DVD, picture) was digitally remastered.

The concert included many of Crowded House's most famous hits and many fan favourites also. The supporting bands were Custard, You Am I and Powderfinger. Powderfinger released their performance also with selected versions of their album Internationalist.

As the album was to be the final performance by the group, they called upon previous members Tim Finn and tour drummer Peter Jones to play for a small portion of the setlist. Drummer Paul Hester, though he had previously left the band while on tour, was considered a member of the band again for the performance, as he had been a member for the majority of the group's tenure.

Published on Sep 18, 2016
When he was told he’d be interviewing rock stars Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, Charles Wooley was expecting stories about sex, drugs and rock and roll. Instead he got cops, rabbis and missing money. But Neil and Nick’s beloved Australian – and Kiwi – band Crowded House has always been a little bit different. It seems like only yesterday they first sang their way into our heads and hearts, but in fact they’ve been writing and performing their hit songs for 30 years. So to celebrate the milestone, Neil and Nick took Charles on a nostalgic journey back to where it all started.