Arts and Culture in Sydney

Held in October, SXSW Sydney brings together inspired thinkers, creators and innovators from around the world for an annual global gathering of the tech, music and screen industries. November sees the start of the international cricket schedule, followed by the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day and the United Cup kicking off the tennis season at the end of December. In January, Sydney Festival brings a summer of art to the city in the form of more than 130 events ranging from opera to dance, film festivals, cruises, music, and expos. February sees the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Australia's largest celebration of its diverse LGBTQIA+ communities, which delivers a blockbuster program of colour and festivities.  

Vivid Sydney - the world’s largest festival of light, music, ideas and food - is held from late May until mid-June, transforming Sydney with art installations and 3D light projections that illuminate iconic landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, alongside live music, culinary experiences, and creative talks. Winter is the season for Australian Football League (AFL), with public matches played at Sydney Cricket Ground and ENGIE Stadium, as well as international Rugby Union games played at Allianz and Accor Stadiums.  

Held in early autumn to take advantage of Sydney’s balmy evenings, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour runs for a month featuring productions such as Madama Butterfly, West Side Story, and La Traviata. Presented by Opera Australia, it’s staged at Mrs Macquarie’s Point overlooking Sydney Harbour, featuring an undercover pop-up restaurant and boasting views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.  

For a captivating insight into First Nations Australian cultures, groups can watch a performance by Bangarra Dance Theatre; a company of dynamic artists with proud Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. Seasonal ticketed performances are held at the Sydney Opera House, or private performances can be arranged for up to 200 guests.  

Sydney Dance Company also presents seasonal performances at Carriageworks and Roslyn Packer Theatre at Walsh Bay.  

Sydney delivers stage shows and musical production in spades, with famous Broadway musicals and timeless plays gracing the State Theatre, Sydney Lyric Theatre, Theatre Royal Sydney and Belvoir St Theatre. Shakespeare Fans are in luck, too, with dedicated theatre company Bell Shakespeare specialising in the works of William Shakespeare. 

Large-scale mainstream music concerts are held at several stadiums across the city, from Accor Stadium (capacity 83,000) and Qudos Bank Arena (capacity 21,000) at Sydney Olympic Park, to Allianz Stadium (capacity 43,500) in Moore Park near the city centre collectively hosting international superstars. Popular mid-sized concert venues include The Hordern Pavilion (capacity 5,500) and Enmore Theatre (capacity 1,600), which regularly feature global rock, pop and indie stars in a more intimate space.  

In Darling Harbour, International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is home to three concert venues ranging from 1,000 – 8,000 seats. For groups visiting Sydney in May or June, Vivid Sydney runs a vibrant music program, with intimate gigs across the city along with Vivid LIVE which has featured renowned acts.  

Over the balmy summer months, the Domain - a sprawling, 34-hectare (84-acre) parkland-style venue with capacity for up to 50,000 people - stages alfresco shows under the stars and has welcomed festival concerts and performers. 

Spanning for a month during April and May, the Sydney Comedy Festival is Sydney’s biggest annual comedy event, featuring more than 250 of the best comedians from Australia and around the globe. The festival delivers everything from stand-up to satire, improv, musical, magic and children’s comedy across venues like the Sydney Opera House, Enmore Theatre and Riverside Theatres in Parramatta. Outside of the festival period, fans can enjoy regular live comedy events run by groups like the Enmore Comedy Club at the Enmore Theatre or Factory Theatre in Marrickville, the Comedy Store in Moore Park - Sydney’s longest running comedy club - and the Kings Cross Comedy Club.  

Jazz music enthusiasts can get their fix at Foundry Six One Six in Ultimo, which features the best in contemporary jazz and jazz-oriented music starring local and international talent. Late night jazz venues include Lazy Bones Lounge in Marrickville, which is open until 3am several nights of the week, and The Vanguard – a legendary live music, burlesque and cabaret venue in Newtown. 

Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2021 and revealing a major expansion in 2022, The Art Gallery of NSW is the state’s leading visual arts institution and one of Australia’s flagship art museums. Its historic sandstone south building – Naala Nura – and adjoining north building Naala Badu – are open daily and offers personalised walking tours for groups, along with exclusive after-hours, curator-led experiences like A Night at the Gallery and the Yiribana Experience. Both VIP experiences include exclusive private Gallery access – the latter exploring the Gallery’s vast Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection – and a five-course, wine-matched meal. The Gallery’s permanent Asian Lantern galleries also present two floors of diverse works from its collection of Asian art, which stretches from Indonesia to Mongolia, Japan and Iran.  

The Art Gallery of NSW also manages the Brett Whiteley Studio, a converted warehouse in Surry Hills that was the workplace and home of celebrated Australian artist Brett Whiteley, open to the public Thursday - Sunday.  

Nearby in Chippendale is the White Rabbit Gallery, which hosts one of the world’s most significant collections of Chinese contemporary art, and over in Leichhardt in Sydney’s Inner West is the retail and gallery space for the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, the longest running Aboriginal owned and run arts organisation dedicated to supporting and promoting New South Wales language group artists.  

For an unmissable outdoor art experience, the seasonal Sculpture by the Sea exhibition transforms the Bondi to Tamarama Coastal Walk each spring, with more than 100 striking works spread along 2km of clifftop creating the largest free outdoor sculpture exhibition in the world. 

History and science buffs will be captivated by Sydney’s exceptional museums, starting with the Australian Museum. The jewel in Sydney’s museum-crown, this magnificent building was founded in 1827 as Australia’s first museum and is home to more than 21 million scientific specimens and cultural objects. Groups can explore the gallery at their leisure or on a guided walking tour; or, several spaces can be used for private events, including the 200-capacity Wild Planet gallery – a celebration of global biodiversity that displays more than 400 animal species, including a colossal sperm whale skeleton suspended overhead.  

In Darling Harbour, the Australian National Maritime Museum is Australia’s centre for maritime collections, exhibitions, research and archaeology. It brings a modern perspective to the narratives of the people who have lived, worked, and explored Australia’s waters, and examines First Nations peoples’ living cultural connections to ancestral waters. The Museum’s spectacular waterfront location is ideal for both small and large-scale events, with several spaces available for hire, including the entire precinct which can accommodate up to 2,500 guests.  

In Ultimo, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is undergoing a major heritage revitalisation which will deliver new and expanded spaces. Powerhouse Ultimo is part of a group of museums featuring more than half a million objects that demonstrate the continued impact of the applied arts and sciences through technology, innovation, design and engineering. Due for completion in 2025, its sister venue, Powerhouse Parramatta, is set to be the largest museum in the state with more than 18,000 sqm of exhibition and public space. Powerhouse also operates the Sydney Observatory, located atop the highest point in Sydney Cove, where visitors can experience an intimate guided tour of this heritage-listed site and learn of its national significance as a centre for astronomy, meteorology and science.  

The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour, run by First Nations business Dreamtime Southern X, takes guests on a fascinating walking tour of the historic Rocks precinct of Sydney Harbour. This leisurely 90-minute stroll provides insight into the oldest living culture on earth – the First Nations peoples of Australia – and uncovers the authentic history of the Aboriginal people’s saltwater heritage within Sydney Harbour.  

Nearby, visitors to the famous Sydney Opera House can take a behind-the-scenes tour to discover the history and secrets of this iconic building or choose from an array of specialised experiences ranging from mobility access tours to backstage sneak peeks and architectural tours led by expert guides.  

For those interested in learning about Sydney’s surf culture, local experts Let’s Go Surfing offer a fantastic full day ‘Best of Bondi’ tour which provides an insider’s perspective on this Sydney suburb. Guest will tour Australia’s oldest surf lifesaving clubs and learn why Bondi Beach - the home of surf lifesaving and the famous Bondi Lifeguards - is such an important part of Sydney’s coastal lifestyle, before trying their hand at surfing under the guidance of an expert followed by a three-course lunch at a fine dining restaurant overlooking Bondi Beach.  

Over in Newtown in Sydney’s Inner West, Local Sauce Tours runs fabulous walking tours exploring the area’s multicultural cuisine, street art and small bar scene. 

Visitors can lace up their walking shoes and take a self-guided exploration of the city’s architectural icons or join Sydney Architecture Tours who run themed small group tours guided by architects. Highlights include the famous Sydney Opera House designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the iconic 1970s site 25 Martin Place designed by ‘the father of Australian modernism’ Harry Seidler and revitalised by internationally renowned architectural firm Woods Bagot, the Neo-Romanesque Queen Victoria Building, Sydney Town Hall, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Strand Arcade.  

In nearby Darling Harbour, International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) which opened in 2016 has won numerous international awards for its design, and its 20-hectare (49-acre) public precinct has been praised for its urban planning and landscape architecture.  

At the city’s southern end are several more architectural icons worth stopping to admire: the bizarre Chau Chak Wing Building at the Haymarket campus of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the six-storey Exchange building in Darling Square which is wrapped in 20,000 metres of ribbons of light-coloured wood, and the spectacular foliage-covered cantilevered dual high rise at One Central Park.  

And in the north shore suburb of Wahroonga, Rose Seidler House - ‘the most talked about house in Sydney’ when completed in 1950 - was designed by the young Harry Seidler for his parents Rose and Max and overturned almost every convention of suburban home design. Open for visitors on Sundays, it’s one of the finest examples of mid-20th-century modern domestic architecture in Australia. 

Built to symbolise the friendship between Sydney and the city of Guangzhou in China, the Chinese Garden of Friendship near Darling Harbour was inspired by the philosophy of Feng Shui to balance the elements of water, plants, stone, and architecture, creating a peaceful place for locals and visitors.  

Adjacent to Circular Quay, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is Australia’s oldest botanic garden, overlooking Sydney Harbour. Visitors can take a stroll through the gardens at their leisure, take a guided walking tour, or discover the Indigenous bush foods that grow throughout the Garden on an Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour with a First Nations guide. The Gardens also boast vibrant purple-flowering jacaranda trees in springtime; other popular places to view jacarandas include Kirribilli, The Rocks, and Paddington.  

Further around the Harbour at Barangaroo, visitors can join an Aboriginal Cultural Tour of the six-hectare (15-acre) headland of Barangaroo Reserve, taking in the 75,000 native Australian trees and shrubs: the only public space in Sydney to boast this quota of native flora.  

In the city centre, Hyde Park offers 16 hectares (39.5 acres) of lush open space and several important monuments, including the Anzac Memorial and Archibald Fountain.  

In Sydney’s southwest lies Australia’s largest botanic garden at Mount Annan, which is also home to the Australian Institute of Botanical Science.  

At the Auburn Botanic Gardens in Sydney’s west, the annual Sydney Cherry Blossom Festival in August draws huge crowds, as people come to admire the spectacular cherry blossom trees - known as ‘sakura' in Japanese - in full bloom.  

In Sydney’s east, the heritage-listed Paddington Reservoir Gardens are reminiscent of the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome.  

The hidden alleys, cobblestone lanes and centuries-old buildings of The Rocks offer a fascinating glimpse into Sydney’s colonial past and can be explored with The Rocks Walking Tours or self-guided at your leisure.  

Further towards the heart of the city lie the Hyde Park Barracks, one of 11 UNESCO World Heritage sites across the country that tell the story of Australia’s convict migration. Open daily for self-guided tours with an audio headset, visitors will learn how the Barracks were originally built to house convicts but since served as a women’s immigration depot and asylum, and later law courts and government offices.  

A short ferry ride from Circular Quay is UNESCO World Heritage-listed Cockatoo Island, which was a penal establishment from 1839 to 1869 and a major shipbuilding and repair facility from 1857 to 1991. Guided tours of the island – Sydney Harbour’s largest – are available, along with self-guided audio tours.  

Nearby Goat Island also has an intriguing history, which visitors can uncover on the Convicts, Castles and Champagne tour run by Sydney Harbour Tall Ships.  

Alternatively, take a scenic 50-minute Parramatta RiverCat boatride from Circular Quay to Parramatta Park, which is home to Old Government House - the oldest surviving public building in Australia and one of the country’s 11 UNESCO World Heritage sites. The National Trust runs guided tours of the convict-built Georgian house which contains a major collection of colonial furniture, as well as the nearby dairy building and ranger’s cottage.