Last week Time Out named Sydney the fifth top city in the world for culture, up there with Paris, Florence, Edinburgh and Mexico City, which took spots one to four in Time Out’s 2025 list of the World’s Best Cities for Culture Right Now. ‘Right now’ is the operative phrase. Of course Sydney doesn’t have historic landmarks like the Louvre or Michelangelo’s David. But the Emerald City is finally breaking free from its all-looks, no-brains reputation, thanks to a load of work that’s gone into making Sydney a more vibrant city, and this result reflects that it’s actually beginning to pay off.
After the announcement, NSW Minister for the Arts, Music and the Night-Time Economy, John Graham, MLC, then weighed in, citing some of the factors that have helped “bring Sydney back to life”. “[It’s] involved cutting lots of red tape that was holding back small venues through to large cultural events," he says. Just some of those red-tape slashes have included the introduction of Special Entertainment Precincts, where venues and patrons can make noise into the night; increased incentives for venues to host live music; the extension of venue trading hours; and the removal of some outdated rules like the no-standing-while-drinking rule, the 5km-radius-sign-up rule at clubs and the concert cap on stadiums. Sydney has definitely lost some of the wowser in the last couple of years.
I’ve lived in Sydney my whole life, so I’ve witnessed Sydney’s ongoing cultural evolution first-hand. And, as Editor in Chief of Time Out in Sydney, Melbourne and across Australia – a job that has me going out for a living – I have a really good grip on this city’s arts and cultural landscape. So while there’s a whole lot of noise from people who think “Sydney is dead/has no nightlife/it’s too expensive for culture to thrive”, if you go out like I do all the time, you’ll find these things aren’t actually true. It’s a narrative that gained legs during lockdown, and those legs have stamina. So what will those who peel themselves off the couch find when they head out in Sydney?
Visual arts in Sydney:
To start with the expensive part, you can get your hit of art for free all over the city. The Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW) is free to enter (you only have to pay for particular exhibitions), including the new Naala Badu gallery (the modern-art-focused North Building). (The AGNSW also runs nighttime happenings like Art After Hours, while the MCA does Artbar.) Speaking of new stuff, there’s also the new Artspace, which is both a studio for young artists to practice their stuff, and a gallery of free exhibitions.
The ground-breaking White Rabbit Gallery’s exhibitions are always free; and out west, the huge Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (both a producer and presenter of the arts) is free to enter, with most exhibitions also free. That doesn’t take into account hundreds of small art galleries dotted around Sydney, which are free to check out, and free to rock up to for opening-night drinks (just get on the gallery lists to be notified about when they are). To find out about loads more awesome Sydney galleries, head over here. To find Aboriginal art, check out these great spots. Or if you like your art both free and free-ranging, check out some epic street art.
Music in Sydney:
There are free concerts at innovative performance space Phoenix, a venue that puts on epic concerts that are accessible to the public via a free ballot. Despite the popular narrative, I know from experience you can find free live music on in Sydney every night of the week – at one of Sydney’s fab live-music pubs like The Eveleigh, Pleasure Club, The Duke or The Botany View. There are nine dedicated live music venues across Marrickville and its small neighbouring suburb of Dulwich Hill – and if you jump over to nearby Balmain and Rozelle, another nine. Hence why these suburbs are set to become Sydney’s next Special Entertainment Precincts. Classical music fans will want to check out the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 program over here.
Museums in Sydney:
Sure, there are the biggies in Sydney like the Australian Museum and National Maritime Museum, but there are also a heap of more esoteric museums that are well worth a gander. There’s the free Chau Chak Wing Museum, which our Arts & Culture Editor Alannah Sue reckons is one of the most underrated museums in the world. There are lesser-known spots you’d walk past every day without noticing, like Susannah Place Museum in The Rocks, and Hyde Park Barracks Museum. There are specialist museums like the Sydney Observatory, for space buffs. Find more intriguing museums here.
Cultural events in Sydney:
Continuing on the free vein, most of what you can do at the huge annual Vivid Sydney festival (on from today) is free – the free-factor was a particular focus of the organisers this year. And Vivid isn’t just light art; there are loads of free music and “Vivid Ideas” events you can get around.
This city’s also renowned for its huge cultural festival, Sydney Mardi Gras, which gets bigger and buzzier every year. There’s the huge, free Biennale Sydney, which now makes the most of an old power station space. There are annual festivals coming out of our ears and eyes: the Sydney Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival, Film Festival, Writer’s Festival, Comedy Festival and Sculpture by the Sea. And when you can’t find a festival, these days you’re likely to be able to find a street party (or at least a buzzing market) to rock up at.
Performing arts in Sydney:
The performing arts might not often come for free, but I can attest to the fact that there is world-class drama, comedy and dance on Sydney’s stages every night of the week – whether it’s at the pub theatre underneath the Old Fitz, at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct (which is home to nine different performing arts companies, including theatres and Australian Chamber Orchestra), or out west at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre, at the most spectacular space of all – the Opera House (perhaps only upstaged by the on-water venue that hosts the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour).
Multi culture in Sydney:
Culture’s obviously not just about visual art, performing art and music, but the rich tapestry that makes a city what it is – and much of what makes Sydney’s tapestry so colourful is the fact that our city’s population is made up of more than 180 different national backgrounds. In the City of Sydney, 50 per cent of residents were born overseas, and 34.8 per cent speak a language other than English at home. So it’s no wonder that on a single street in Sydney you can discover such a diverse mix of cuisines and stores and people – take Haldon Street in Lakemba, for example, where you’ll find everything from Afghani food to Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, Christmas Island, and even one specialising in Indian-style Chinese food. Go to Harris Park and it’s all about Indian food. In Ashfield and Burwood you’re spoilt for Chinese-restaurant choice. Strathfield has Koreatown. And Marrickville is home to both Little Greece and Little Vietnam. We could go on, but we won’t because we’re hungry.
I’m going to dash to eat and go see Vivid now, but before I go, I must mention Sydney’s thriving drag scene, any amount of trivia and other social nights you can check out, daytime raves in cafés are becoming a thing, and we’ve had some of the world’s biggest acts have graced our stages in recent years with no sign of that slowing. Sydney still has room to grow, but we like the direction she’s growing in.
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