Melbourne, brace yourself for a culture shock – you’ve just been dethroned as Australia's ‘cultural capital’. We promise we’re not here to stir the pot. Time Out just published its list of the Best Cities for Culture Right Now, and Melbourne’s biggest rival claimed the top Aussie spot and cracked the global top five.
To determine the rankings, Time Out surveyed 18,500 city dwellers around the world – including Melbourne – on their hometown’s cultural scene. Based on the responses, each city was scored on both the quality and affordability of its cultural offering, with only the highest-scoring cities for each country making the long list. Time Out’s culture experts (our global network of city editors and arts and culture writers) then weighed in, voting for their favourite cultural destinations.
Unsurprisingly, Paris ranked as the best city for culture on the planet, with an enormous 96 per cent of Parisians rating their city’s culture scene as either ‘good’ or ‘amazing’ in the survey. But here’s a shocking stat: Sydney came fifth on the list, receiving the joint-highest share of votes from the culture-experts panel as Paris. Bloody oath!
Yep, our Emerald City tied with Paris as a favourite among Time Out’s panel of experts – and Sydney locals are frothing over our arts and culture scene at the moment, too, with 70 per cent rating this city’s culture scene favourably, highlighting events like the Sydney Film Festival, Sydney Mardi Gras and Sydney Fringe, alongside happenings at the Art Gallery of NSW and (of course) the Sydney Opera House, plus indie venues like the Enmore Theatre.
For years, Melbourne has proudly worn the crown as Australia’s cultural capital – even landing tenth in the world in 2023. But despite priding itself on its arts and culture scene, the Victorian capital didn’t even make the list this time around. (We love ya though, Melbs!)
The following 20 cities did make the list – in each of these cities, culture isn’t confined to museums, theatres and legacy art venues; plus it’s affordable and accessible, for locals and visitors alike. You’ll find pop-up festivals in unlikely locations, late-night museum parties, community gallery crawls, and a new cohort of creatives thinking up the next big thing. (Ever been to a rave in an actual cave? Or a nature-inspired literary festival?)
These are the 20 best cities in the world for culture
- Paris
- Florence
- Edinburgh
- Mexico City
- Sydney
- Barcelona
- Chicago
- Lisbon
- Hanoi
- Cape Town
- Beijing
- Tbilisi
- Jakarta
- Delhi
- Medellín
- Amsterdam
- Marrakech
- Vienna
- Prague
- Abu Dhabi
To see the full list and survey results, click here.