Things to do in Sydney this weekend
Find all the best events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend
Another weekend is on the way, so you best prepare yourself with this itinerary of free-time fun. Supanova will keep the sci-fi fans contented, and fitness fanatics can tick off a Western Sydney running route that’s one of Sydney’s best fun runs.
There’s also a vibrant festival’s worth of live music to dance to in the city, as well as plenty of opportunities to get an injection of culture at the intriguing art exhibitions around Sydney this month.
RECOMMENDED: Things to do when it rains in Sydney.
Find the best things to do this long weekend
Supanova
Prepare for three days of cosplay, creative masterclasses and competitions bringing your favourite characters to life. The guest list is off the charts this year. Meet Frodo aka Elijah Wood, Barbara Eden, the original Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie, as well as Get Smart’s Barbara Feldon (good thinking, 99!).
Kira Puru
Melbourne artist Kira Puru is fresh off a tour with house music master Peking Duk and ready to celebrate her latest sassy single ‘Everything is Better Without You’. We’re ready to see her channel her performance inspirations like Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie in Sydney.
Matador
This fiery fusion of burlesque, dance and circus set under the Spanish sun arrives at Sydney Opera House this month. Seen through the torrid relationship between the Bull and the Matador, the show traces the many stages of love, from flirting and infatuation to unrequited love and infidelity.
Good Food and Wine Show
World-class chefs, food enthusiasts and TV personalities will be cooking up a storm for this annual food and wine convention. It’s three days of tastings, cooking demonstrations and chef meet-and-greets that’s on the level of Comic-Con, only less cosplay and more lunch.
Garden Life Winter Sale
Spruce up your life with some ferns, florals and appartment-friendly forests at this huge plant sale. St Peters plant nursery Garden Life is offering major discounts on plants, pots and other gardening paraphernalia for ten days this month.
Make Music Day Parramatta
For 35 years, this celebration has seen hundreds of cities support live music by hosting a free, one-day music festival. Hear indie-pop, hip-hop mixer Mike Akox perform his smooth beats alongside African drum and dance group Yacou Mbaye, neo-soul groover Mel Bailey and electro-funk, hip-hop artist Mike Champion.
An Evening with Matty Matheson
Canadian TV chef and hat enthusiast Matty Matheson is coming to Australia for a national run of talks. Matheson is taking the stage solo to chat about his life and career as a chef and host of shows like It's Suppertime, Dead Set on Life, and regular segments on Vice's Munchies.
John Grant
With his caramel baritone, exquisite taste in knitwear and devastating way with lyrics, singer-songwriter John Grant has truly transcended his former group, the Czars. This will be Grant’s first visit to these shores in over three years and, incredibly, he’s never played Sydney before.
Western Sydney Parklands Trail Run
If you regularly pound the pavement on the same old city running route, change up your jogging cycle and test your legs at the Western Sydney Parklands Trail Run. The new fun run will take you on a loop of the park’s expansive grounds, with 35km, 19km, 11km and 4km courses.
Things I Know to Be True review
The Price family are a lot like many others passing the years in Australia’s suburbs. Bob is a bit lost at 63, having taken a redundancy and his a tough-as-nails wife Fran is the ultimate overbearing mother and hardworking nurse. This family drama unfolds as their adult kids face identity crises and their idealised family unravels.
Bangarra: 30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand
After thirty years, Bangarra Dance Theatre has emerged as one of Australia’s best dance companies, consistently working to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories and experiences. In 30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand, three contemporary works are brought together to celebrate the strength and breadth of Bangarra’s legacy so far.
The Longest Nightmare of the Year
If you’re a keen horror flick fan and love a good jump scare, head to Kings Cross Hotel on June 21 and welcome the winter solstice with an evening of terror. Every level of this long-standing pub is getting a terrifying makeover for an horrifically interactive haunted house experience.
Yolanda Be Cool
House artists and Bondi party boys Yolanda Be Cool are bringing their energy to the Eastern Suburbs for a free show. They’ll be joined by DJs Barney Cools and Audiopaxx when they play their set at the Coogee Pavilion this weekend.
Aperture Australia
Budding Sydney photographers can network with industry pros at the second iteration of this photography conference. TV journalist Ray Martin will be back on hosting duties for live talks, workshops and intensive panel discussions with six well-known Australian and international photographers.
Methyl Ethel
While there’s a dreamy, down-the-rabbit-hole feeling to their music which distantly echos Perth’s other psych-pop darlings Tame Impala, Methyl Ethel are increasingly carving their own niche into this particular brand of Aussie alt-rock. They’ll be stopping in Sydney to share their new album, Triage.
Gloria
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the hottest playwrights working in New York at the moment, but Sydney audiences haven't had the chance to see his work yet. Gloria draws on his own experiences as a writer at The New Yorker, with its setting at an upmarket literary-focussed magazine.
Asyik Kids Festival
'Asyik' is the Indonesian word for 'fun', which is exactly what this family-friendly festival is bringing to Sydney. Presented by Sydney-based Indonesian dance group Suara Indonesia Dance, expect a day filled with Indonesian dance, art and food.
Winter Solstice Viewing at Elizabeth Bay House
Elizabeth Bay House is in perfect alignment to catch the morning rays on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, creating a striking scene as the sun rises over the horizon. Join this sunrise tour to see the magic happen and then enjoy a pastry-heavy breakfast.
Razorhurst
Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine have fascinated Sydney since they ruthlessly ruled Darlinghurst in the '20s and '30s. Now they're getting the musical treatment in this new show. It kicks off in 2019 when Leigh's former shop for sly grog is being reopened as a hipster coffee shop. But the ghosts of the past are never far away.
Anatomy of a Suicide
Described as “one of the most formally ambitious, emotionally rich and daring plays to have emerged out of the UK in recent years,” this play follows mother, daughter and granddaughter Carol, Anna and Bonnie and the legacy that mental illness wreaks across their lives.
Dedicated to the Dedicated: Whitlam, the Arts and Democracy
There was arguably no greater prime minister arts champion than Gough Whitlam, who revolutionised arts funding and controversially purchased Jackson Pollock's 'Blue Poles' for the National Gallery of Australia for $1.3 million in 1973. The collection is the centrepiece of this exhibition, which traces Whitlam's commitment to the arts.
Frida Las Chin Chin: Smoke and Mirrors
Get ready to channel the outlandish decadence of the '80s at Chin Chin when Sydney artist Frida Las Vegas takes to the restaurant's basement for an experiential dining residency. Along with some help from Valiant Events, Chin Chin's interiors will be transformed into pop art excess matched by a menu of Chin Chin favourites.
Prosecco and Pilates
While the alliteration is charming and we enjoy a good core workout as much as we love a glass of prosecco, this unusual combo could result in some rather painful burps. But a $12 Pilates class is a bargain, and the view from the roof where you’ll be stretching and sipping is epic.
Head south for epic outdoor adventures
A guide to the Royal National Park
It's less than an hour's drive from the CBD, yet so many Sydneysiders haven't stepped foot in the pristine 15,091 hectares of bushland that lines the coast south of Sydney. Whether you want to swim, trek, picnic, swim, bike ride, swim or just GTFO of Sydney for the day, the Royal National Park will provide an adventure-filled day out.