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This provocative Irish play is having its Australian debut at the intimate Old Fitz
Alana Valentine's play about body image and bridal gowns isn't quite the perfect fit
This huge Indigenous event program will encompass some of the biggest days on the calendar recognising the achievements and experiences of First Nations peoples
Take part in workshops, learn about Indigenous healing practices and eat traditional foods on the first day of Reconciliation Week
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Café del Mar is launching in Bali mid-2019, and you have the chance to experience it like a VIP at their Grand Opening event
If your idea of a great time with your crew is playing detective and solving riddles, then you'll want to check out the city's newest escape rooms in Sydney's inner west. Myst Escape Rooms in Glebe have four themed experiences and they all have custom props and interactive technologies to make the life-size riddles more fun. New at this? You can start with one-hour experiences like the vampire-themed Dracula's Dark Awakening and the treasure finding quest of Pirate's Gold. But if you've been working your way through Sydney's escape rooms and feel like a challenge, the Cursed Tomb is the escape room for you. It's a two-hour journey into a sinister ancient tomb that involves the members of your team being separated and working together to escape the tomb unharmed. Maybe your favourite part of any game is the 'boss fight', in that case you'll want to try the Ancient Palace immersive theatre experience, which is made for six to 12 players. The concept: a murder mystery at a grim birthday party in the Qing Dynasty. Your role: get into character with professional actors to crack the case and prove your innocence. If you're intrigued, you could win one of three complimentary passes to experience the Dracula's Dark Awakening or the Pirate's Gold escape rooms. With one of these passes, you can gather a group of four to eight people, so make sure you bring a solid crew. To win a pass, simply enter the competition through the link below before 10am, Friday June 21. Enter now
Every year Sydney comes alive in winter for Vivid Sydney, the festival of lights, music and ideas. This year, Mode Kitchen Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney will be embracing the festival’s spirit with the Chroma Dinner, a multi-sensory feast inspired by the colours red, green and blue. Mode Kitchen and Bar will complement the four-course dinner with virtual reality, sound and olfactory experiences. Each course will be accompanied by matching cocktails that will complete the dining experience. In a nod to Vivid Sydney’s core themes, the limited edition feast is a combination of food, art and technology. If that has got your senses tingling, the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney is giving away two Chroma Dinner sittings for two at Mode Kitchen and Bar on Wednesday June 12. All you need to do to win this multi-sensory feast is fill out the form below by June 3. If you don’t want to take your chances, the Chroma Dinner will be on from Friday May 24 to Saturday June 15, sittings are $145 per person for the full four-course experience. Book now through the Mode Kitchen and Bar website. Enter here
There's one way to avoid dealing with the Vivid Sydney crowds this year, and that's with a climb up the Sydney Harbour Bridge with BridgeClimb Sydney. Their annual Vivid Climb is back this year from May 24 to June 15, and they're giving Time Out readers the chance to win a double pass to experience Sydney's light installations and projections from a sky-high vantage point. The experience is worth $268 for adults and $188 for kids, and the lucky winner and a friend will get to join a group on a three-and-a-half-hour climb starting at sunset. On the way up you'll get to see the harbour from a whole new angle, and the experience will culminate in the coolest dance party once you reach the top. You'll dance on a light-up dancefloor under the stars, and when it's time to go home, winners will receive a complimentary group photo and video capturing your once-in-a-lifetime dance party with a bird's eye view. If you'd like to experience Vivid Sydney a little differently this year, enter the competition below by May 24. Enter here
Here’s where to get your retail therapy on the Cenny Coast.
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If you’ve ever wanted to get into classical music, but the idea of sitting in a concert hall listening to Beethoven or Bach isn’t for you, head down to the City Recital Hall on June 7 for a show that will completely change the way you look at concertos. Instead of a concertmaster in front of men and women in their best black tie, this performance will be headlined by Sonja Schebeck, a fire-taming violinist with an interest in fiery acrobatics. This will be a one-night-only performance of two Australian classical music pieces, Maninyas by Ross Edwards and the debut of Tale of the Firebird by Chloe Charody. Maninyas is considered one of Australia’s famous violin concertos, while Charody has worked with Schebeck since 2007 and has composed her piece for this very performance. Schebeck is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, one of the country’s best institutes for classical music, and she has received multiple prizes including the Balmain Sinfonia Concerto Competition and Gisborne International Music Competition. Joining Schebeck onstage will be the Freestyle Orchestra, an international ensemble of musicians who play their instruments while performing circus tricks, acrobatic stunts, dance and physical theatre. Expect fire-breathing viola-players, violinists hanging from silks and human towers complete with a range of string instruments. This is definitely not your average classical music gig. Concertos on Fire is presented by Vivid Music, a part of the Vivid S
If you’re a Sydneysider, loving Vivid comes with the territory. And since the colourful winter festival paints our city in such a spectacular light, it’s well worth the annual visit. But, there’s one thing that can put some off the idea: the crowds. Luckily, BridgeClimb Sydney has come up with a solution for those wanting a more exclusive (and calm) view of the projections and light installations. BridgeClimb Sydney is running their night-time climbs throughout the Vivid festival with a few perks. From May 24-June 15 and for the standard night climb ticket price of $268 for adults and $188 for kids, you’ll get to experience Vivid from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We’re talking bright lights and colours as far you can see. Imagine seeing the iconic Opera House sails, vibrantly lit up, with an unobstructed vantage point? In groups of no more than 14, you’ll embark on the three-and-a-half hour climb just as the sun goes down. You’ll don your flashing vest and on your way up, enjoy incredible views of the light installations and projections from every angle. Adding to the festival atmosphere, at the very summit of the bridge there will be a flashing '70s disco, complete with light-up dancefloor and retro tunes. You can boogie down while you’re up top, and you’ll be able to keep a short video of your dance moves and a complimentary group shot as souvenirs of your time on top of the world. Don't miss out, bookings are now open on the BridgeClimb Sydney website.
You’ve finished up another day on that nine-to-five grind and you’re ready for something a little more exciting to do. May we suggest that you take advantage of the fact you’re already in the city to go and enjoy some great live music? We’ve rounded up a list of eight outstanding yet under-the-radar gigs that are on in late May and early June as part of Vivid XCelerate, Vivid Sydney’s spotlight on emerging musical acts across different genres, which is funded by the City of Sydney. There are dance parties to groove to, cabaret to experience and many other fantastic gigs to find. And as it turns out, going to experience live music can actually boost your productivity in the office and improve your wellbeing day-to-day, as well as in the future.
It’s right about now, towards the middle of working year, that you’re probably craving a getaway. But before you rush to book accommodation on your usual go-to booking platform, stop to consider this: you could be earning Qantas Points for every dollar you spend^ on hotels. And you can use those points to book your next getaway. Qantas Hotels has more than 200,000 hotels to book internationally. They also have a Price Match Guarantee* so you never need to worry about paying more for your stay. So whether you’re taking the family on that dream trip, seeking a romantic retreat for you and your squeeze, celebrating with a group of your besties or living the high life at a hotel that everyone has heard of, book it through Qantas Hotels – and your Qantas Points balance will have the same healthy post-vacation glow as you do.
Step into the dining room of Mode Kitchen and Bar at the Four Seasons in the Rocks between May 24 and June 15, and you’ll find VR on the walls and brightly coloured food on the tables. This is the Chroma Dinner – a limited edition four-course fine dining menu from head chef Francesco Mannelli. Reflecting the Vivid spirit, the menu builds each course around a colour, a scent, a cocktail and a sound-and-light experience. The colours chosen to represent each plate are the three primary colours of light – red, green and blue (RGB) – with a psychedelic dessert course served with a paint-brush instead of a spoon rounding out the meal. Not to give everything away, here’s a rundown of one out of four courses. The green-inspired Fishing in the Jungle offers Hiramasa kingfish, green ants, herbs, chlorophyll and stracciatella. A combo of gin, dry vermouth, honey and rocket accompanies the plate, as well as the smell of wildflowers. Other dishes that follow will feature spanner crab risotto, ruby snapper and smoked strawberry gazpacho. An olfactory and visual spectacle will enhance each dish, making this dining experience an innovative and exciting one. The Chroma Dinner will cost $145 per person, with sittings at 6.45pm every night. Check out more info on Mode Kitchen’s website, or if you’re feeling lucky, head here to have the chance to win a sitting for two, courtesy of the Four Seasons.
Calling all small business owners! If your digital strategy is looking a little sad, you may be interested to know the City of Sydney is putting on a series of free seminars that bring expert-lead workshops and Q&A sessions together over the course of an evening. This time around, the focus is on the Google suite of tools for small businesses – Google My Business, Google Adwords and Google Analytics – to help you become savvier at digital marketing. On the night, experts from Google will take you through a practical how-to guide on utilising these programs, as well as insights on the changing nature of consumer behaviour, and what businesses can do to thrive. Also appearing are Claire Morris and Renee Gangemi from Prezzee, an e-gift card retailer who have had success with Google’s tools. This seminar will also be perfect if you’re thinking about launching a small business and want to know more about how to give it the best start you can, especially with the question and answer session at the end of the night. Regardless of what your business does, the skill of marketing to customers online is something that is invaluable and necessary to stand out in the marketplace, so make sure you bring along pen and paper to write down any golden tips or tricks. The two-hour session will be held on Wednesday, May 29 at Customs House, and it all kicks off at 6:30 pm. Registration is on the night at 6pm, or you can book in advance on their website.
Get your finest on and head down to Doltone House in Jones Bay Wharf to be part of an event that has never been held in Australia before. World-renowned wines from eleven Bordeaux chateâux are travelling to Sydney for a one-off tasting session before they are bottled and sold for hundreds of dollars. If you fancy yourself a wine connoisseur, this event is for you. Traditionally, the practice of en primeur (future wines), sees only a select number of wine professionals given the opportunity to travel to Bordeaux and sample wines when they are only six to eight months old. They can then invest in the bottles by buying them cheaper than what they are expected to be valued at in the marketplace, at least 18 months later. To bring this experience Down Under, fine wine marketplace Langton's is hosting an en primeur event that will be made up of 12 barrel samples from wines made last year to taste, alongside their 2015 equivalents. The vineyards represented will include the best from the west coast of France, such as Chateâu Lascombes, Grand Puy Ducasse and Pontet Canet. Alongside the swilling and spitting, there will be a grazing table and canapes roaming around so you get the full experience. A ticket to this part of the night will set you back $70, but considering you’ll be getting an insider look into (and opportunity to buy) some of the best wines in the world, it’s a lot cheaper than a plane ticket to France. It doesn't stop there – how does an ultimate connoisseurs tasting