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Two glasses of red wine
Photograph: Supplied/The Wine Bar | Two glasses of red wine
Photograph: Supplied/The Wine Bar

The best things to do in Sydney this weekend

Hello weekend, we're ready for you

Avril Treasure
Edited by Avril Treasure
Editor, Time Out Sydney
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Looking for weekend fun? You've come to the right place.

Wine lovers, this one’s for you. South Australia’s popular Lost in the F.O.G (Festival of Grenache) wine festival is coming to Sydney for the first time this Saturday, August 1 at The Wine Bar at The International, with 100+ Grenache wines from more than 20 producers to taste. Get a ticket here.

Don’t have a snowy Euro holiday on the cards this year? No worries. Woollahra Hotel is bringing après ski vibes to Sydney for two weeks from July 29-August 9, with a winter chalet takeover, mountain-inspired cocktails and jaffles. The party really kicks off with two huge Après Ski events, with Harvey M taking over on Saturday, August 1, and Yolanda Be Cool on Saturday, August 8. Find out more here.

I saw Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Opera House recently and LOVED it. Five knock-out performances, a fresh retelling of a classic and plenty of laughs. Check out our review here – and go see it. Elsewhere, The Addams Family has landed at Hayes Theatre and The Jungle and the Sea is telling its powerful story at Belvoir. Check out the best shows to see this month in Sydney here.

One of my fave things to do on the weekends is head to a local market to pick up eggs, flowers, a fresh loaf of bread and chutney. Here are some of the best ones in Sydney.

Eating-wise, we’ve got you covered, with Time Out’s guide to Sydney’s best cafés, restaurants, bars, affordable eats and wine bars. I hope you love them as much as we do.

Want to get outside? These are Sydney’s prettiest picnic spots, and we’ve rounded up a bunch of excellent walks too.

If the weather is average but you’re keen to get out of the house (and stay dry), check out our guide to fun things to do indoors. Plus, warm up with Sydney’s most delicious Sunday roasts (crispy pork belly for me).

The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes have landed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with Richard Lewer taking home the top honour for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara Elder Iluwanti Ken. Head to the gallery to check out the winning portrait in person, plus all the finalists and winners. The exhibition runs until August 16, with tickets from $30.

Hope you have a fun weekend.

Weather not looking so hot? Check out our list of the best things to do indoors in Sydney.

Looking for weekday fun? These are the best things to do in Sydney this week.

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, straight to your inbox.

The best things to do this weekend

Epping Night Markets

  • Shopping
  • Epping
Epping Night Markets
Epping Night Markets
Photograph: Supplied | Epping Night Markets
Epping has scored a new after-dark addition. The suburb’s first-ever monthly night market has launched at Boronia Park, bringing street food, live tunes and a buzzy community vibe to the heart of the neighbourhood.RECOMMENDED READ: These are the best markets in Sydney Kicking off on April 24 and running on the last Friday of every month (with a special end-of-year edition in the works), the Epping Night Markets see more than 30 stalls serving up everything from artisan eats to handcrafted goods. Expect roving performers, local talent on the mic and plenty of reasons to hang around – with the market taking over the park from 5–9pm. Backed by City of Parramatta and delivered by AMA Event Management, the markets are a solid excuse to cancel your Friday night takeaway plans.You can find out more and plan your visit over here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED:Want more activities? Here’s what’s on in Sydney this weekendAnd here’s what’s on this week.Looking for somewhere for dinner? These are the best restaurants in the city.

Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)

  • Musicals
  • Sydney
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)
Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)
Photograph: Prudence Upton
Isobel McArthur’s Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) strips away the intellectual exclusivity of Jane Austen’s classic, not only making it accessible to a wide variety of audiences, but also making clear the sort of tools that Austen herself was using in her original novel: gender, satire, romance, and – most of all – comedy. There’s no Colin Firth here – but there are plenty of karaoke songs to hum along to. What is the premise of Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)? Told by the servants who work tirelessly behind the main characters within Austen’s work, we’re given a slapstick comedy version of Pride and Prejudice. Dressed in white gowns with Doc Martens poking out underneath, the five-strong cast clean their way through the audience with yellow rubber gloves and individualised accents from across Great Britain. The fourth wall is destroyed immediately – they want you to be a part of the story. After a rather disturbing entrance involving a plunger and a rather messy toilet, Elvis Costello’s ‘Everyday I Write the Book’ launches us into literary territory and the premise is set up. Though you may only know the main characters of Pride and Prejudice, there were unsung heroes helping to push the Bennet sisters along their journey towards love and stability. Now, it’s their turn to tell a version of the events, with a song or two along the way – it’s best not to reason about the artistic merits or reasoning behind this addition, just go with it. Perhaps the jumbled selection of songs...
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The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

  • Things to do
  • Darling Harbour
The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
Photograph: Supplied | Kit Photography
Few things in life manage to bridge generational divides, and one of them is Animal Crossing. Whether you’re looking for activities these school holidays or feeling nostalgic for the hours spent catching fish on your Nintendo Switch, head to Darling Harbour from July 1 to August 23 to experience a dreamlike underwater world where your favourite virtual characters and the real marine world collide. Back by popular demand, the Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience returns with a fresh and even more immersive take, giving returning fans the perfect excuse to come back. Snap a pic with Isabelle, everyone's favourite secretary, or check out panels from Blathers about the aquarium’s real-world marine life. In between lessons, see if you can spot a washed-up Gulliver alongside giant cutouts of other island residents hiding around. You can also take part in a stamp rally inspired by the game. If you collect all the character stamps, you'll take home a postcard as a reward that’s worthy of a spot on the fridge.  Tickets start from $99 per family, with 30 per cent off until July 19. Plus, students save more than 50 per cent, with $24 tickets available weekdays anytime (outside school holidays) or every day after 3pm. The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience at Sea Life runs for a limited time from July 1 to August 23, 2026. To learn more and get tickets, visit the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium website. To celebrate the return of The Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience, we're...
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Winterfest

  • Things to do
  • Fairs and festivals
  • Haymarket
Winterfest
Winterfest
Photograph: Supplied | Hay St
’Tis (almost) the season: Christmas may still be six months away, but you won’t have to wait that long for a festive-style fix. A new winter festival is landing at Hay St, bringing an ice-skating rink, winter cocktails and immersive events, from July 1 to August 2. The month-long celebration will see Hay St embrace the season with a special Winterfest menu as the market is decked out with twinkling lights, falling snow in a dedicated laneway, and a pop-up photo booth, where you can snap a souvenir pic to take home. Whether you’re a newbie or a pro, lace up for a 45-minute skate sesh on the synthetic ice rink. Tickets are $10 and include skates as well as a 25 per cent off voucher for food from any stall of your choice.  If you’re less of a skater and more of a spectator – especially when it comes to the hockey-player romance craze currently taking over our screens – Hay St is hosting a one-off American-themed Off Campus Party on Thursday, July 9. Take a study break and step into a real-life campus movie, with cheerleaders, hockey players and campus officers roaming the halls. Entry is $5, with a DJ spinning party tracks all night for anyone keen to hit the dance floor. As if you needed another reason to visit, the market is also hosting the most wholesome date-night activity, with two cosy nights of candlelit jazz performances on July 25 and August 1 from 6-9pm. Winterfest at Hay St runs every Wednesday to Sunday from July 1 to August 2, with free entry. Find out more here.
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The Addams Family

  • Musicals
  • Elizabeth Bay
The Addams Family
The Addams Family
Photograph: James Reiser
"They're creepy and they're kooky / Mysterious and spooky / They're altogether ooky / The Addams Family."  If you love that jingle and the famously freaky family associated with it, you'll be thrilled to know that The Addams Family is haunting Hayes Theatre, Potts Point until August 9. Cue dark humour and death stares in this in this Gothic musical comedy where love, family and chaos collide.  Brought to life by the acclaimed team behind The Producers, this new production is directed by Julia Robertson (The Producers, Metropolis) and choreographed by Shannon Burns (Gutenberg! The Musical, The Producers). Based on the beloved characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams, the musical follows Wednesday Addams as she falls for a “normal” boy – forcing the wonderfully weird Addams clan to confront love, acceptance and the awkward business of meeting the in-laws. Leading the cast is Erika Heynatz as Morticia Addams (Legally Blonde, Menopause the Musical), bringing plenty of gothic glamour to the iconic matriarch. Marcus Rivera steps into the role of devoted husband Gomez Addams (Miss Saigon, City of Angels), while Jenny Guigayoma plays Wednesday Addams (Nine, Peter Pan) and Georgia Oom takes on the mischievous Pugsley (Werkaholics, Footloose). Evan Lever brings his peculiar charm to Uncle Fester (The Normal Heart, Muriel’s Wedding), Deborah Galanos embraces the chaos as Grandmama and Elliot Aitken makes his professional debut as the deadpan Lurch. The Addams Family delivers...
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Doubt: A Parable

  • Drama
  • Millers Point
  • price 1 of 4
  • Recommended
Doubt: A Parable
Doubt: A Parable
Photograph: Supplied
Institution versus intuition. Power versus prejudice. Bias versus belief. It’s all laid bare in the stage production of Doubt: A Parable, now at the Sydney Theatre Company. Sam Reid (The Newsreader, Interview with the Vampire) stars opposite Pamela Rabe (Wentworth) in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play that’s directed by Australian theatre great, Marion Potts. The production also features Zindzi Okenyo (director of Purpose) and Shannen Alyce Quan (The Dictionary of Lost Words), bringing together a stellar cast for this engrossing 90-minute drama. Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx, New York in 1964, Doubt centres on a shocking accusation that blurs the lines between suspicion and truth. Sister Aloysius (Rabe), the rigid headmistress of St. Nicholas Church School suspects the charismatic Father Flynn (Reid) of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards the school’s sole black student, Donald Muller. If the plot sounds familiar, it’s perhaps because you’ve watched the 2008 film adaptation, starring Meryl Streep and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Provocative and deeply unsettling, the play asks audiences to question everything – and is as relevant now as when it made its Broadway debut about 20 years ago. As the evidence remains frustratingly inconclusive, audiences are left to wrestle with their own assumptions long after the final curtain falls. Doubt: A Parable is at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Roslyn Packer Theatre until August 2, 2026....
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Hany Armanious: The Planets

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • The Rocks
Hany Armanious: The Planets
Hany Armanious: The Planets
Photograph: Hamish McIntosh
You probably walk past hundreds of everyday objects without giving them a second glance. But what if you slow down and look at them in a whole new light? Step inside the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) to view Hany Armanious: The Planets – an exhibition that transforms objects from our daily lives into thought-provoking works of art. Running from July 10 to 26 October 26 in the Macgregor Gallery, the exhibition celebrates the work of artist Hany Armanious. Born in Egypt and based in Sydney, Armanious rose to prominence in the 1990s and represented Australia at the 2011 Venice Biennale. His practice has long explored the idea that nothing is ordinary – all it takes is how we choose to look at things to alter our perception. Bringing together 19 new works created especially for the exhibition along with sculptures from the MCA Collection, The Planets presents a collection of curious forms scattered throughout the gallery. Arranged across the gallery floor and walls, and sometimes cast in coloured polyurethane resin, the sculptures – ranging from burnt down candles and used coat hangers to a broken polystyrene cup and an old noticeboard – encourages you to pause, observe and discover unexpected beauty hiding in plain sight. Hany Armanious: The Planets is on at the MCA until October 26, 2026. Get the details here. Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED: Also check...
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The Lion King

  • Musicals
  • Haymarket
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
The Lion King
The Lion King
Photograph: Daniel Boud
The opening note of ‘The Circle of Life’ may just be one of the most recognisable in a Disney musical. If you don’t agree, then you may have to convince the entire theatre-going audience who were at Disney’s The Lion King on opening night. The full house’s roars could be heard all the way out of the Capitol Theatre’s front doors as the king of musicals triumphantly returns to Sydney – the first time in more than a decade. What type of show is The Lion King? It’s called The King of Musicals for a reason. If it’s not Elton John’s iconically recognisable music, or Tim Rice’s lyrics you’ve sung over a late-night karaoke session, then its Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi’s book featuring the characters you love, the characters you hate, and the ones you undoubtedly cry over – tears were definitely still shed during that scene. What’s so beautiful about The Lion King is the blurring of worlds and culture that merges in between all of these. Julie Taymor’s directorial conception blends African culture, language, movement and costume underneath masks and puppetry of the animal characters. Mufasa’s “crown” is a stoic, strong and towering headdress. The elegant lionesses soar and leap through the sky through Garth Fagan’s choreography as wing-like gowns flow behind them. The animals of Pride Rock are adorned with larger-than-life puppets of intricate designs and architecture: a re-engineered bicycle becomes leaping antelope, birds fly above the crowd on poles manipulated by performers,...
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The Garden

  • Things to do
  • Exhibitions
  • Marrickville
The Garden
The Garden
Photograph: Supplied
Beautiful things are (nearly) blooming in Marrickville. Following the delightfully offbeat success of The Grocery Store – an exhibition of wonderfully inedible everyday goods – Voluptuary Ceramics is transforming its warehouse yet again, this time into an enchanting, otherworldly garden. Running from July 25 to August 30, The Garden is an immersive exhibition featuring garden-inspired ceramics, sculptures, paintings, textiles and tactile objects by more than 50 Australian artists, designers and makers. Each artist has been busy as a proverbial bee in their own studio, cultivating creations of garden-themed artwork and now they'll come together to display and sell their wares. Think hand-felted wool creations of mushrooms and moss; detailed paintings of ferns, fungi and flowers; metal sculptures of butterflies and bees; and whimsical ceramic blooms. From bold and bright to intricate and delicate, The Garden invites you to wander and wonder at nature’s bounty – and perhaps take home a little piece of this wonderfully imagined world. The Garden is on at Voluptuary World, Marrickville from July 25 to August 30. Find out more via their Instagram page.  Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox. RECOMMENDED: The best markets in Sydney for farm-fresh produce or arts and crafts 25 fun (and delicious) things to do in Sydney for under $25  Have you had a bite at Eat Ozzo Marrickville yet?

The Jungle and the Sea

  • Drama
  • Surry Hills
  • Recommended
The Jungle and the Sea
The Jungle and the Sea
Photograph: Daniel Boud
If you missed out on seeing the powerful and deeply moving play, The Jungle and the Sea in 2022, it returns to Belvoir St Theatre from July 11 to August 2. Created by S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack, the creative team behind Counting and Cracking, the production tells the story of one family caught in the devastating Sri Lankan civil war, which raged between the Sinhalese-majority government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from 1983 to 2009, leaving unimaginable death and destruction in its wake. At the heart of the story is Gowrie, a mother desperately trying to reunite her family as violence engulfs her homeland. After an act of destruction tears her loved ones apart, she takes a radical vow of defiance, blindfolding herself and refusing to see the world again until her family is reunited. While she sends her husband and one daughter to Australia for safety, she and her other two daughters search through the jungles of northern Sri Lanka for her estranged son.  Drawn from real-life testimonies and woven with elements of the Mahabharata and Antigone, the play is both grand in scale and deeply human. Featuring live Carnatic music with a stellar cast including Bharathanatyam dancer Anandavalli, plus Prakash Belawadi, Nadie Kammallaweera and Shiv Palekar, The Jungle and the Sea is a stirring tale of love and loss in the face of war. The Jungle and the Sea runs from July 11 to August 2 at Belvoir St Theatre's Upstairs Theatre with a run time of almost three...
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