Alyx Gorman

We know that living in London can be tough on the skin, what with all the pollution and air-conditioned offices. And that’s before we even think about harsh weather, alcohol, sun exposure, dehydration and the inevitable passing of time (the joys). Just thinking about what we put our skin through is enough to give you frown lines. Luckily, though, there are loads of great spas and treatment rooms in London where you can give your face a break. Whether you’re after a relaxing, soothing facial massage, some instant radiance, a total skincare overhaul or something a little more intense, read our pick of facials in London. You won’t regret it. RECOMMENDED: The best spas in London

Don't let the designation of Australia's capital city fool you; there are plenty of diverse and exciting things to do in Canberra. It may be the seat of Australia’s political power, but the city’s reputation for being the Bush Capital is well earned. Despite the museums and monuments, Canberra has much the look and feel of a country town, right down to the kangaroos that bound around the city’s abundant nature reserves. Over the last five years, the capital has undergone a hospitality glow-up, with world-class wine bars, trendy restaurants and stylish boutique hotels opening in the rapidly developing cultural precincts of New Acton and Braddon. Although once only visited by eye-rolling schoolkids on excursions, culture vultures drawn to the National Art Gallery, and political wheelers and dealers, Canberra’s now a perfect weekend getaway spot, regardless of your interests.  RECOMMENDED: The 13 best restaurants to dine at in Canberra right now.

The Emerald City is peppered with a whole host of stellar hotels that each individually carry their own little sparkly slice of je ne sais quoi. Whether you’re in town for one night, want a longer stay, are flitting through for business, or are travelling to Sydney for the very first time and want to make sure you’re in the best possible spot to properly explore the city, we have you covered. Having earned our stripes reviewing hotels across the country, our team of writers (including Lifestyle Writer Winnie Stubbs and our Travel and News Editor Melissa Woodley) have shared their top picks – along with top tips on how to make the most of your stay. From five-star luxury to boutique boltholes, this list is our edit of the best hotels in Sydney (in no particular order). Warning: it'll be hard for you to choose just one to stay at! Sorry, not sorry. Rather stay under canvas? Find the best glamping sites in NSW or the best camping near Sydney. This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, click here.

Mudgee's wineries are the region's biggest drawcard. Most are family owned, and many have been scoring big at wine awards. Whether you're motivated by cellar-door snacking, finding a preservative-free drop that doesn't compromise on taste, or you're just after a truly impressive view – the area has you covered.  Ben, who runs the Mudgee Tourist Bus and has been taking people around the region for over a decade, says six is the magic number when it comes to winery touring: “it’s the most you should try to fit in.” That's why we've picked six of the best – hit them all in one day, or take it easy with 48 hours of winery touring. Want more wine country? Here are the best wineries in the Hunter Valley. Or get more travel inspiration with short weekend getaways from Sydney. 

‘Mudgee’ comes from the Wiradjuri word ‘Moothi’ which means, romantically, ‘Nest in the Hills’. Flying in, you can see the truth to this moniker – Mudgee is a valley surrounded by gently curved peaks. It has a climate several degrees warmer than the surrounding high country, which, along with sandy loam soil, makes the area attractive to viticulturalists. Wine, and the accompanying fresh produce of a fertile wine country, are the most obvious drawcards of the region. We've even put together a list of the best wineries to visit while you're there. But you’ll also find national parks, heritage villages and artists’ towns in these here hills, alongside some truly excellent accommodation options. Want more travel inspiration? Here are six places where you can feel like you’re overseas without ever leaving NSW.

One of the best things about the weather changing is watching the world bloom again. In Japan, this is a very big deal. Cherry blossom trees there (named ‘sakura’) only bloom for about two weeks in spring – between April and May in the Northern Hemisphere – and people travel from all over the world just to see them. There's even a cherry blossom forecast for sakura season.  Sadly, however, there’s no guarantee they’ll bloom for the actual cherry blossom festival (‘hanami’), so if you’re desperate to see those pretty pink flowers, there is another way. Though they’re native to Asia, cherry blossom trees actually bloom all over the world, from Europe and North America to the Southern Hemisphere. So if you’re desperate to admire those pink blossoms (and snap them for your Instagram), you might not have to travel across half the world to do it  – and we’ve rounded up the very best spots for it, right here.  RECOMMENDED:🌸The best places to see cherry blossom in the UK 🌿The best cities to see cherry blossoms in the USA🖼️The best new art galleries and reopenings for 2024🎭The best things to do in the world in 2024

We hate to say it, but TLC were wrong. Turns out you should go chasing waterfalls, especially in Sydney and New South Wales. Some are in national parks, you can swim in some, and some secret ones will take you a bit of a walk to find.  Load up the picnic basket and take a road trip to find these cascading falls near, in and around Sydney. You’ll find plunge pools you can swim in, waterfalls you can walk over and mountain walks so awe-inspiring they'll make you feel small. Feel like making a weekend of it? Here are the best weekend getaway spots near Sydney.

Don't follow us yet? Follow Time Out London on Instagram. Do it now.

Sure, you’ve heard of Sydney’s famous harbour, but there’s more to the city than just a glittering expanse of sheltered water: we also have ocean beaches. However, ask the locals and they’ll tell you that some of the best places to stay in Sydney don’t even come with a water view. From once hippy to now hip neighbourhoods, where live music venues line the streets (Newtown), to LGBTQIA hubs where even the purple jacaranda trees show their pride (Darlinghurst), there’s plenty to see beyond the shore. Whether you’re keen to party after dark or are looking for somewhere a little more salubrious and silent, there’s a Sydney neighbourhood to suit your needs. Need more local knowledge? Here are our best Sydney travel tips.

When you talk to people about what they value in a place to live – and place maker Kylie Legge has spoken to 20,000 of them over the last decade – some common themes crop up. One of the most common is not something you’d necessarily yell at the screen during Family Feud: plants. From a view of trees out the window to the little pot of devil's ivy you keep on your desk, being around green stuff makes people happy. That’s not just a feeling, either. “There are lots of studies that show plants lead to actual improvements in health,” Legge says. Then, there are the environmental benefits. From helping combat climate change by sucking C02 out of the air, keeping ground-temperatures down and reducing pollution, what plants do for us go way beyond aesthetics or warm-and-fuzzies. Around Australia, 202020 Vision is a project aimed at increasing the number of urban green spaces by 20 per cent by 2020. That's why Legge has partnered  with 202020 Vision to figure out not only how to create green spaces, but how to create places people love. They're not all big, flashy gardens either (although, let's be real here – who doesn't love an award-winning oasis like Melbourne's Royal Park?) "Different people want spaces for different reasons. I love the story of Wendy’s Garden. The sense of discovery... the intimacy.  But other times I want to be part of something bigger. Like the Buderim Urban Food Street on the Sunshine Coast, where you get the sense that the community is behind something, an

When it comes to weekend getaways, don't rule out Connecticut. Boasting a gorgeous coastline with some of New England's best beaches, historic seaside towns, beautiful scenery and burgeoning food and arts scenes, the nutmeg state has something for everyone. Easily accessible by car or train from New York City, you can fit a lot into a single weekend in Connecticut. The country’s third smallest state can deliver art, great eats and much-needed time by the water, in just 48 hours. For a mix of culture, history and nature, base yourself in New Haven. The town is easily accessible by public transit, and has the perks of being proximate to one of the world’s most venerable colleges and by the seaside, all at once.

Forget Sydney and Melbourne and take a trip down south to Adelaide instead. The capital city of the state of South Australia is bustling with life and there’s plenty to see, do and eat when you visit.

This review is from the Southbank Centre, 2019. ‘Fashion Freak Show’ returns in ‘upgraded’ form to run at the Roundhouse over the summer of 2022. Jean Paul Gaultier has found the perfect format for his autobiography. A grand, genderqueer, tits-out revue in the tradition of the Folies Bérgere, where this show ran in Paris prior to its London debut.  As a piece of catwalk spectacle, it’s a roaring success. As a cabaret, less so. Typically in cabaret, the costumes are the weakest element of the show. If you’ve got an eye for that sort of thing, it’s not uncommon to clock crooked seams and loose sequins as a singer belts her soul out, or as an aerialist hangs in midair.  Here, the opposite is true. The costumes are so staggering in their originality, wit and construction, they outshine everything else on the stage. And in this big-budget production, with its towering screens and 18-strong cast, there’s always a lot going on on stage.  Written and directed by Gaultier (who doesn’t himself perform), the show’s structure is loosely chronological. We begin with a surreal surgical scene – doctors in silk organza ‘rubber gloves’ – projected onto a huge screen. A young Jean Paul is sewing that iconic, conical bra on to his beloved teddybear. Then, the screen lifts and a troupe of furries emerge for a raucous dance number. Amidst the faux fur and glitter, Maud’Amour, who acts as a sort of emcee for the show, is clad in a bear suit with ‘fur’ made of real feathers, and a silk corset.  Vid

The Mermaid Pools are on crown land, which means you won’t find any of the facilities you’d expect in a National Park, including clear signage. The trail to get to this site is signalled by small blue and yellow markers attached to trees, and it’s relatively easy to get lost, so make sure you bring a friend, and provisions. This spot is where the first recorded European sighting of a koala took place, so keep your eyes peeled for the sleepy marsupials. There are two walking tracks that will get you to the pools, one high and one low. The walk to get to the pools is about five kilometres, and the track is not looped. Once you arrive, you’ll see a stunning green basin, wrapped by cliffs, with the Bargo River flowing into it from above. The site is a sacred space for local Aboriginal community, the Tharawal people. “You can really feel the energy of the place when you go down there,” says Wollondilly Environmental Education Officer Damion Stirling. Though the Mermaid Pools are sometimes described as a swimming hole, Stirling advises that swimming is not only disrespectful of the site’s religious significance, it’s also downright dangerous. “There's no real easy access way to get down into the pool,” he says. The only way in is to jump, and there are often submerged logs hiding below the surface. “There've been a few incidents down there,” he says, referring to the 2014 death of Campbelltown local Megan Moody. “We advise people take care when walking down the trail, and really st

It may not have the waterslides of nearby Wet’n’Wild, but the undercover water play area area at Blacktown Showground Precinct’s Francis Park is still a hit with the kids. Boasting some of the best facilities in the area, the park also includes a mini wetlands, mixed use basketball and netball courts, a schmick modern playground (complete with balance beams, climbing frames, jumbo swings and flying foxes for bigger kids), sheltered picnic areas, six barbecues and large stretches of lawn to horse around on. There’s a café in the centre of the park, with a large deck overlooking the wetlands. Café aside, the whole park was rammed with family cook-outs and kids’ birthdays. Barbecues are free and available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Sick of spas with whale song and whispering? Notting Hill’s Young LDN might be for you. The two-floor salon features therapy rooms splashed with street art, offers CBD-based treatments and – thanks to manicure tables fitted with headphones and iPads – allows you to binge on Netflix while you get your paws painted. The salon specialises in treatments for younger skin, and it has a range of high-tech machines designed for zapping acne and settling its associated redness. There’s even a teenage facial, complete with skincare 101 training, available for 12-18-year-old customers. At £55 a pop, these sessions will eat up a few weeks’ pocket money, but they’re much cheaper than similar treatments at most of the upscale parlours in the neighbourhood. If you’re old enough to remember life before smartphones, the salon offers peels, LED light treatments, micro-needling, and laser – you know, all those interventions that help keep you from looking your age. And if you’re feeling particularly rough, you can opt for the hangover treatment – a facial with LED light therapy and a glass of fresh juice.

As you roll into Bernie Dieter’s ‘Little Death Club’, the first sign of how your night will unfold is a literal sign: ‘Warning – real fire will be used in this performance’. Bring it. A four-piece band plays funk-rock with a distinctly pornographic twist while Dieter and her small carnival of miscreants lounge on the stage and in the stalls, vamping it up for the crowd. It’s a Weimar Republic throwback that will feel deliciously familiar to fans of Bob Fosse’s ‘Cabaret’. But unlike ‘Cabaret’, our bob-sporting brunette with powerful pipes is on top, emceeing and in complete control of the crowd and herself. ‘Little Death Club’ unfolds beat-for-beat like a traditional cabaret with singing, some circus arts, drag and smatterings of comedy and nudity. But Dieter’s original score (a little '80s, a little Bertolt Brecht), potent signing voice and playful stage presence keep the format feeling fresh. There’s no narrative arc here, just a perfectly paced variety show, gently themed around letting your freak flag fly. Aerialists Fancy Chance and Beau Sargent are standouts. Chance, dressed in billowing voile robes, suspends herself above the stage by her hair, fluttering above the crowd like a psychedellic butterfly. While Sargent folds himself into pretzel shapes so grotesque yet gorgeous, you can hear the crowd wince as they cheer. There are spots of audience participation (and humiliation), particularly by Dieter and acid-tart drag queen Myra Dubois. Their crosshairs are focuse

Note: The experiences offered by The Goddess Space vary depending on the theme of the event. This write up is based on the women's sharing circle.  Thought witchcraft was all burned out? Guess again. Women’s rites are alive, thriving and thoroughly photogenic at Anoushka Florence’s Goddess Space – a sort of spiritual retreat for women. I’m here for one of her ‘women’s sharing circles’. Inside, tealights glimmer around a bowl of flowers, cosmic projections flicker across the ceiling and the floor is strewn with vintage cushions. The crowd is a young, diverse and elegant bunch, who have mostly found Anoushka through her Instagram account. She begins the ritual by burning herbs. We sit cross-legged in a circle and say our name, star sign and reason for attending. It’s like AA for the ‘moonchild’ set. We sip from cups of cacao, basically hot chocolate, only much more powerful. Anoushka takes us through a guided meditation – a journey to find our ‘inner’ wise woman. Under my arse cheek, my phone starts to vibrate, and my inner wise woman rolls her eyes.After the meditation, the sharing begins guided by a ‘talking crystal’ that’s passed around the circle. Every woman is on the precipice of something – a move, a job, a break-up – or has just made the leap. There are tears. Instagram is of course known for its artifice, but what it’s brought together here is earnest and sincere. I walk out with a sense of connection – the kind you only get when you switch your phone off.

The Old Clare Hotel is full of ghosts – not the Stephen King kind, but the ghosts of parties past. If you listen closely you can probably hear echoes of Brit pop reverb off the mottled yellow tiles that still line the downstairs bar of this former student-haunt. Thank God for heritage listings. We’re betting there are also trace elements of Jager bombs in the grout. But a whole new era has begun at the old Carlton Brewery site: where once was a temple to sticky carpeted uni shenanigans, now stands a vintage-styled cocktail bar beneath a slick boutique hotel, complete with rooftop pool. Standard rooms are generously sized, with king beds, mid-century modern furniture and city views, meanwhile Abercrombie Rooms offer much the same experience, with the added kick of a freestanding in-room bath. But if you want to go full baller, check into the C.U.B. Suite – it’s housed in a former boardroom, and every piece of wood paneling and parquetry has been kept intact. Time Out Tip: The Old Clare is located in Sydney’s coolest suburb, Chippendale. Nearby you’ll find five star restaurants, a three storey warehouse of contemporary Chinese art, and a beautiful, modern cinema complex.

Generally, things that look incredible on Instagram underwhelm in real life. Rainbow cakes are always too dry; inflatable pool toys exist mainly to dunk you; and contoured make-up makes you look more like a streaky clown than a Kardashian. Australia’s first bubble tent – aptly named Bubbletent Australia – is not one of those things. In fact, like the moon, fireworks and big stadium pop shows, the bubble tent is actually a lot more impressive in the flesh (well, polyurethane membrane). There are three tents to choose from, each overlooking a different aspect of the Capertee Valley, the largest valley in the world. All three offer total seclusion, which is not only pleasant but needed, since the central chamber of each one has a 360 degree view out, and in. Thanks to its high altitude and low light pollution, Capertee, two hours and 45 minutes west of Sydney, has some of the best stargazing near the city. That’s why it was selected by Bubbletent Australia. On our visit it rained throughout the night, so we can’t attest to the depth of the Milky Way. However, the pitter patter of rainfall against the clear plastic bubble, with the occasional flash of lightning in the distance, was a soothing bedtime soundtrack and vista. On clear days the sunset and the stars are probably spectacular, but watching the valley fill with mist in the rain, while wet kangaroos bounded for shelter, felt no less special.  Despite appearances, the bubble tent is neither steaming hot nor chillingly col

If you think ‘"Fantasia" meets the "Point Break" remake’ sounds like a solid elevator pitch, then 'Mountain', the new film by 'Sherpa' director Jennifer Peedom, is for you. The richness of the soundscape, matched with glorious images of high places that defy gravity, sanity and death – is an intoxicating combination. Mountain is worth it for the music and vision alone, which is a good thing because the poetic narration written by Robert Macfarlane, author of 'Mountains of the Mind', and voiced by Willem Dafoe, never reaches the level of philosophic profundity or emotional realness achieved by the 'Point Break' remake. The sum total of the film’s narrative content is as follows: Mountains are ancient and indifferent to the labours of humanity, and yet for humankind they can be the ultimate test, of nerve,  faith and stamina – a test many do not pass. This sentiment is rephrased over and over with unwavering, gravelly masculinity. The first concrete fact of the film comes a full hour in when we learn Everest has been turned into a sort of extreme sport Disneyland, where the sherpas assume the bulk of the risk. A script so devoid of content is frustrating from Macfarlane and Peedom, given 'Sherpa' and 'Mountains of the Mind' show both are more than capable of researching robustly and communicating their findings. It's not until the credits that we learn the locations where the film was shot. The score, both original compositions and the works of Vivaldi, Chopin and Beethoven, ar

Think you need to check into a fancy hotel to get an all-you-can-eat cake buffet for breakfast, complete with pots of house-made caramel, trays of tarts, rows of fresh croissants and gleaming chocolate bundt cakes? The good news is you’re wrong, and you’re about to be better off by a whole lot of dollar signs. Every Sunday, Ovo Cafe, a Brazilian joint hidden inside the no-longer seedy, but still far-from-chic Oxford Square shopping centre, puts on a sweet breakfast feast. And at $25, its exceptional value if you like your fruit salads bottomless and you have no family history of diabetes. With its hanging plants, cheerfully painted walls and mosaic tiled floor, Ovo is the nicest looking cafe inside a windowless shopping centre we’ve ever seen. The crowd on weekends is a testament to an aesthetic and service that’s wholly upbeat. People who could be waiting in line outside in the sun are instead choosing to wait in line (albeit a shorter line) inside under fluorescent lights.   If you don’t fancy the cake parade, but still have a sweet tooth, eating at Ovo is a great excuse to order Brazil’s second most famous export – the acai bowl, a dish which happens to be the favourite meal of Brazil’s most famous export: supermodels. This one is as photogenic as the women who love it, layered with slices of kiwi, banana and strawberry like the scales of a rainbow fish. Underneath it’s sweet, slightly fragrant and icy. Perfect for warm summer days. If you’re after something considerably

Turon Gates Country Resort is such a well kept secret, not even Google Maps knows where it is. It sits on the western foothills of the Blue Mountains, just northwest of Wolgan Valley, on the road between Lithgow and Mudgee. The drive from Sydney is two and a half to three hours, depending on traffic. When you turn off the Castlereagh Highway onto Upper Turon Road, your GPS will declare you’ve arrived. You have not. Instead, take a right when the dirt road forks, drive across cattle grates, through paddocks, past signs that declare emphatically ‘This road passes through private property’. Eventually things start to get hilly. Look up, and you might catch a white bellied Australian kestrel hovering above you. Look behind you as you gain altitude and you might see a wedge-tailed eagle winging across the plain below. At this point, you’ll be navigating the curvy ridge of a steep hill; while you don’t need a four wheel drive, you’ll be happier if you’ve got one. Your phone will lose signal. Eventually you’ll wind your way along a creek to a sign that says ‘Manager’. Drive past ducks, chickens and free-roaming chestnut horses to a cottage surrounded by greenery. It looks like it was cut out of a European fairy tale and dropped into the Australian bush. This is Soren and Sonya Lunoe’s house (yes – if you’re wondering, they are DJ Anna Lunoe’s parents). If you’re lucky, their well fed cattle dog Tara will totter out to greet you with a friendly bark. The couple have owned the Turon G

You can’t see much of Koda Cutters from its Gould Street shopfront. And the sign on the door that politely says ‘by appointment only’ suggests they’d like to keep it that way. But once you’re inside the super-cool salon, their generous courtyard area, bright space and Hollywood-regency-lite furnishings will make you feel like a celeb on the downlow. Koda’s creative director Diane Gorgievski is an editorial stylist who regularly does hair for Vogue, Elle and Russh photoshoots, and she founded Koda because “it was time to open a little creative space for me… I’ve lived in Bondi for the last 11 years and I just wanted to be down here. It has such good vibes. And I kept walking around the streets and seeing all my clients, so I knew it was the place.”   Lucy Folk is a regular customer – “I love what she’s doing and the concept she’s got going on” – alongside plenty of other breezy local fashion types. Expect to pay $50 and up for a blowdry at Koda, with haircuts starting at $100. “The Bondi clients definitely want easygoing hair that looks good for longer. I’m doing a lot of relaxed colour-work and balayage. It’s hair with a bit of freedom.” While you’re getting some no-regrowth sunstreaks meticulously painted into your locks, you might notice Koda has luminously colourful, woven bags hanging in the salon. These Bilum bags are the handiwork of Papua New Guinean women, imported by another Koda client, Caroline Sherman, whose social enterprise Among Equals empowers the bags’ makers

Congratulations, you've cooked it. It's Christmas Day, you were planning on staycationing in Sydney all summer long and now you've realised you have to get out.  Even if you vow to visit a different ocean pool every day of the break, even if you hit up all of these things to do between Christmas and New Year's Eve, it still doesn't feel worth staying in the city. The good news is, there's still time. You can still go on a perfectly beautiful summer vacation (or even skip town for New Year's Eve). You just have to be smart about where to go. First up, you can pretty much forget the coast. From Shoalhaven, all the way up to the Northern Rivers region, every charming seaside holiday town in New South Wales is experiencing its busiest period. Also, it's going to be raining the whole time (sorry). Even if you do get a room you'll likely have to a pay a premium for it. Here's where to go instead. The Blue Mountains The Fairmont (pictured) still has availability up to and over the New Year's Eve period. Many of the Blue Mountains' best attractions, like gorgeous views and beautiful hikes, don't shut down over the summer season. Ticketed attraction Scenic World is also open throughout summer, including Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Plus, it's just a two hour train ride, or hour-and-a-half drive from Sydney.  The Hunter Valley While it's busy over the holiday period, the Hunter Valley isn't totally booked out. The wine region is two and a half hours' drive from Sydney. You can still

From London to Los Angeles, Tel Aviv to Tokyo and Mexico City to Melbourne, Time Out has always celebrated the magic of cities. Now, as we approach our fiftieth birthday in 2018, we want to work out how that magic happens. The Time Out City Life Index is our investigation into the reality of city living today. We want to discover what makes cities great, how city-dwellers feel about their hometown, and which are the best neighbourhoods right now for going out, having fun and living city life to the full. This is your chance to tell us all about your life in the city. What do you love about living here? What frustrates you? Is it affordable? Is it a slog? And where are the best places for dancing all night, finding great food or making new friends? Help us find out by taking just a few minutes to complete the Time Out City Life Index survey. It’s fully anonymous, so be honest! And once you’re done, we’ll reveal which city in the world you should live in. Last year, oh boy Sydney, the results were not good. We were the third-least fun city in the world, right ahead of Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. We also scored dead-last on dynamism. Meanwhile, those laneway dwelling, street-art-huffing, asymmetric-haircut-having Jan Bradys in Melbourne scored second in the world. Second!   But, things are different now. The CBD will have free WiFi soon. Live music venues have been given a small lockout extension. We have seven million bike-share companies now! Is it enough to change your mind? Are

For over five decades, the Brooklyn Academy of Music has been setting an experimental agenda, giving over its stages to the likes of Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. We spoke to Katy Clark, a former concert violinist who has been president of the academy since 2015, about encouraging risk-taking theatre, community building and ‘Bernie Sanders’ philanthropy. On encouraging audiences to experiment One of the great things about the BAM audiences is that they come to trust the umbrella brand of BAM. They know that whatever they come to see will be surprising, maybe shocking, may be provocative, may be very comforting but it will always be something. It’ll be something different. Some people often come and say they hated something and they’ll still come back. If you’re asking how we cultivated that over time, it’s a real combination of things – there’s the programming itself, which is very diverse. You’re not going to come and see the same classics over and over again. You’re going to see a lot of new forms. You’re going to see forms that are mashed up together. You’re going to see short form work. You’re going to see long work. You’re going to see work from different stages. There’s a lot of variety in the genre and the stages and the type of work that’s being produced and I think that’s very appealing. And we make it affordable. That’s not a small thing. A third of our tickets are under $35. The other thing, which is less of a tangible thing, is that we’re unstuffy. We have a

The people of Sydney have spoken. And they’re not particularly original. But in a true case of democracy in action, we’ve got to listen to them anyway. The final ship in our city’s brand new fleet of ferries will be named Ferry McFerryface. Ferry McFerryface wasn’t even the most popular name in Transport NSW's 'Name Your Ferry' poll. That honour goes to the actually funny Boaty McBoatface. Unfortunately, Boaty McBoatface is the (perfect) name of a small yellow submarine attached to British research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough. So the next most popular option was picked. And let's be real here, it sucks. Boaty McBoatface is unimpeachable. If I were Nabokov I'd describe it as a pair of pursed lips blowing two kisses before cracking a smile: Mac Boat Face.  Sometimes, repetition amplifies humour. Not in this case. McFerryface is a weak imitation. It's hard to say. The alliterative potential of Ferry McFurface has been squandered by an excess 'ee' sound. We could have had it all. We could have named this vessel Ferry Bread, or Ferry Ripe or Ferry Bueller. We could have honoured our past. Acknowledged a leader in the resistance to colonisation: we could have named it Pemulwuy.  I know it's a cliche to say "just think of the children". But seriously. Just think of them. Think about how embarrassing it will be to explain to your seven year old a decade from now that the boat that's chugging them across the Harbour, gliding beside Victor Chang, Fred Hollows and Catherine Haml

You know Austin City Limits, right? It's a massive park festival that's been running for 15 years. It's just become the proud big sister of a brand new baby. And that baby lives in Sydney.  Sydney City Limits festival is coming to Centennial Park on Saturday February 24. There'll be four stages, which isn't excessive when you consider the enormity of their inaugural line-up.  Here's the bill, so far: Justice, Beck, Vance Joy, Phoenix, Tash Sultana, Grace Jones, Gang of Youths, Dune Rats, the Libertines, the Avalanches, Allday, Oh Wonder, Car Seat Headrest, Bad//dreems, the Head and the Heart, Ocean Alley, Winston Surfshirt, the Staves, Alex Lahey, Sigrid, Thundercat and Ziggy Ramo.  There'll also be a food fare handpicked by the team behind Mary's and the Unicorn, a 'Sydney Kiddie Limits' children's stage, plus a makers' market, art installations and more. This is all coming to you from Secret Sounds, the operators behind Falls Festival and Splendour in the Grass. The festival is all ages, and tickets will go on sale from November 1, with prices starting at $179.90, and stretching to $299.90 for VIP tickets.  Find out more at the Sydney City Limits website.  Did you hear? Sam Smith is playing Sydney Opera House. 

Sculpture by the Sea is back for its 21st year, turning the walkway from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach, and Mark's Park in between, into an outdoor gallery with some of the best backdrops in the world.  This year's exhibition features 104 works from all over the world, including Denmark, Japan, Zimbabwe and the United States. The international sculptures travelled a collective 568,000 kilometres to arrive in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, which is amazing, given the artists typically have to pay for their own freight costs.  This year's works include a glittery hamburger-lure rising out of the ocean, with a hook on the end of its bun. The work is by James Dive, whose 2006 sculpture of a melting ice cream truck, 'Hot with a Chance of Late Storm', inspired another exhibiting artist Amelia Skelton.   James Dive 'What a Tasty Hamburger' Photograph: Anna Kucera     "It was so exciting to realise you could do something that fun as an adult," she told Professor Sasha Grishin, in the Sculpture by the Sea catalogue essay. Skelton's own work 'White Wash' closes the exhibition, stretching along the southern border of Tamarama Beach.   Tsukasa Nakahara 'High Tide' Photograph: Anna Kucera       Simon Rathlou 'Shooting Through' Photograph: Anna Kucera       Chen Wenling 'Autumn Moon in the Sky' Photograph: Anna Kucera           B Jane Cowie 'Swirling Surround' Photograph: Anna Kucera     B Jane Cowie 'Swirling Surround' Photograph: Anna Kucera             Harrie Fasher 'The Last C

Update: The Book of Mormon will open in Sydney at the Lyric Theatre on February 28. On August 30 we wrote: Sydney, the Mormons are coming. At least, that's what we've been teased in a new outdoor poster campaign. The Book of Mormon tour posted this image yesterday, and posters have been spotted around Sydney.  But it's not just Sydney. When you sign up to the ticket waiting list, every state in Australia (and New Zealand too) appears in the drop-down menu.  Image: Supplied   That's all the detail we have for now. But it's something, at least. Not excited? Our five star review of the Book of Mormon in Melbourne (which is playing through to November) might persuade you. Here's what we said: "The songs are magnificent, the buried references to the history of musical theatre are too deeply felt to be token, and the characters are beautifully nuanced and poignant. It slays sacred cows both literal and metaphoric, and is probably the most consistently hilarious musical ever written."  Want your musical theatre fix now? Here's the best upcoming musical theatre in Sydney (that has actually been announced) instead.  

High art meets high fashion in the National Gallery of Victoria’s autumn show House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture Why would a French fashion house with outposts all over the world be celebrating its 70th anniversary at the bottom of the earth? Why would the National Gallery of Victoria give over space to a brand one can easily access on Collins Street, or Chadstone shopping centre? The August debut of House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture may seem counter-intuitive at first, but letting the NGV’s curators loose in the immaculate archives of Christian Dior was an act of surprising symmetry for the brand, and the country. The first time Christian Dior showed outside of Paris was in 1948, when David Jones brought 50 pieces of the designer’s spring collection to Australia. “So [the exhibition will be] looking at that, but also looking at all the different connections subsequently during that period,” says the exhibition’s curator, Katie Somerville. In the postwar period, Dior’s roadshows down under came complete with flocks of French mannequins (that’s models en Anglais), and the exhibition will feature video interviews with some of the women who toured Christian Dior’s final collection for the house in 1957. All of the designers who subsequently worked for the Maison will have their creations represented in the show. There’ll be pieces from the young Yves Saint Laurent, who took over the house after Monsieur Dior’s sudden death, right through to the brand’s cu

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love – that fateful summer when over 100,000 teenagers flocked to San Francisco. They were seeking out the “gentle people” with flowers in their hair, promised by the Scott McKenzie song ‘San Francisco’, that hit the airwaves two months prior. The whole city is alive with celebration and commemoration. “The Summer of Love was fundamental to the DNA of San Francisco,” says historian and former Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally. “It’s ironic, because 50 years ago the police were not thrilled and the city government was like ‘do we really need this aggravation?’” The very failings of the city to address the influx of young people resulted in what are now some of the most celebrated elements of that summer. The San Francisco Free Clinic, founded by Dr David Smith, gave form to the idea that access to healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. The legendary Monterey Pop Festival (which held a reprisal concert in mid-June) raised $25,000 for the clinic, which is still open to this day. “David Smith hasn’t changed a lick,” observes McNally.“Certainly the hippy thing has a lot more respect these days than it did at the time… Jerry Garcia was asked to sing the national anthem for the Giants in 1993. It was the only time in [the Grateful Dead’s] 30 years of existence that they ever sang the national anthem. Someone asked them, ‘Why do you think they asked you now?’ and Jerry’s response was, ‘It’s like old whores and bad ar

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love – that fateful summer when over 100,000 teenagers flocked to San Francisco. They were seeking out the “gentle people” with flowers in their hair, promised by the Scott McKenzie song ‘San Francisco’, that hit the airwaves two months prior. The whole city is alive with celebration and commemoration. “The Summer of Love was fundamental to the DNA of San Francisco,” says historian and former Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally. “It’s ironic, because 50 years ago the police were not thrilled and the city government was like ‘do we really need this aggravation?’” The very failings of the city to address the influx of young people resulted in what are now some of the most celebrated elements of that summer. The San Francisco Free Clinic, founded by Dr David Smith, gave form to the idea that access to healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. The legendary Monterey Pop Festival (which held a reprisal concert in mid-June) raised $25,000 for the clinic, which is still open to this day. “David Smith hasn’t changed a lick,” observes McNally. “Certainly the hippy thing has a lot more respect these days than it did at the time… Jerry Garcia was asked to sing the national anthem for the Giants in 1993. It was the only time in [the Grateful Dead’s] 30 years of existence that they ever sang the national anthem. Someone asked them, ‘Why do you think they asked you now?’ and Jerry’s response was, ‘It’s like old whores and bad a

Sir Macca is coming. It's been 24 years since the living legend graced Australian shores, but he'll be back from December 2 to 11, playing Nib Stadium Perth on December 2,  AAMI Park, Melbourne on December 5, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on December 5 and Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney on December 11.  The singer made the announcement via a Facebook Live interview with Tim Minchin. He also answered a series of fan questions. Here's what Time Out New York have said about Sir Paul McCartney's One On One tour: "To an extent, you know what you’re gonna get from a Paul McCartney show: total professionalism from one of the most gifted and agreeable musicians of the last hundred years. But does that account for the moment Macca comes onstage, you realize you’re looking at a Beatle, and you forget to breathe? Or the grizzled sonics of his genuinely rocking young band? It does not. This is truly must-see viewing, take our word for it." Sounds worth it, right? If so, write Tuesday July 4 in your diary and triple underline it. That's the date tickets will go on sale. Check out the Frontier touring website for further details. Want a live music fix a little sooner? Here's a guide to seeing free live music in Sydney every night of the week.

Sir Macca is coming. It's been 24 years since the living legend graced Australian shores, but he'll be back from December 2 to 11, playing Nib Stadium Perth on December 2,  AAMI Park, Melbourne on December 5, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane on December 5 and Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney on December 11.  The singer made the announcement via a Facebook Live interview with Tim Minchin. He also answered a series of fan questions. Here's what Time Out New York have said about Sir Paul McCartney's One On One tour: "To an extent, you know what you’re gonna get from a Paul McCartney show: total professionalism from one of the most gifted and agreeable musicians of the last hundred years. But does that account for the moment Macca comes onstage, you realize you’re looking at a Beatle, and you forget to breathe? Or the grizzled sonics of his genuinely rocking young band? It does not. This is truly must-see viewing, take our word for it." Sounds worth it, right? If so, write Tuesday July 4 in your diary and triple underline it. That's the date tickets will go on sale. Check out the Frontier touring website for further details. Want a live music fix a little sooner? Here's a guide to seeing free live music in Melbourne every night of the week.