44 things to do in Sydney this weekend

The Harbour City does a good line in immersive light experiences, and if you can’t wait until Vivid takes over the city later in May, Luna Park is here to help. The iconic attraction’s newest installation – Sonic Neon – will be opening to the public from Saturday, April 13, and tickets are on sale now. Housed in Crystal Palace – a building which dates all the way back to 1935 – Sonic Neon will take visitors on a journey through six different rooms, with state-of-the-art visuals and a layered soundscape creating a transportive experience. Illuminating more than 150 metres of the historic building, the experience will feature more than 26,000 lights set to a pulsating soundtrack using state-of-the-art technology that’s never been used before in Australia. Tickets to the event are available now, and first release ticket holders will be afforded access to what Luna Park has described as a “secret zone”. Details about this mystery “Blacklight Dessert Bar” are thin on the ground, but Luna Park has confirmed: “Visitors will be able to purchase glow-in-the-dark desserts including custom treats by Sydney’s famous Tokyo Lamington along with glowing fairy floss and soft serve ice cream.” The experience will run daily from 10am for approximately four months, though the exact end date is yet to be announced. Tickets for the self-guided Sonic Neon experience (estimated to take around 30 minutes) start at $29 per person, and the first month of tickets are on sale now. If you’re keen to secu

Are you ready to chase artistic escapades around the city? The Biennale of Sydney is back for its 24th edition from March 9 to June 10, 2024. Whether you’re a dedicated arts fanatic or a casual culture buff, you’ll find something to inspire and provoke you along this epic art trail. The largest contemporary art event of its kind in Australia, the Biennale is taking over six different locations with awe-inspiring installations and intriguing exhibitions. Titled Ten Thousand Suns, this year the festival explores a multiplicity of global cultures, taking on a transgressive spirit as it leans into the origins of Carnivale. As always, the Biennale is free for everyone to visit for a total of 16 weeks.   Of all the locations, White Bay Power Station is absolutely the main character of the Biennale’s 50th year anniversary (and 24th iteration – it takes place every second year). This is the first time the revitalised industrial site will officially open its doors to the public in more than 100 years – and what they’ve accomplished is pretty spectacular. Years of accumulated pigeon poop has been cleared out of the enormous factory spaces, making way for art installations that tower multiple storeys high, and more works hidden in various nooks and crannies. Pop-up bars and brand new bathrooms also set the stage for a packed program of live performances and music curated by Phoenix Central Park. Think of White Bay as a replacement for the role that Cockatoo Island has played in Sydney’s

Discover the hidden marvels of marine life and the remarkable woman who paved the way to better understanding marine conservation at Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life. This free homegrown exhibition is more than just a tribute to one of the world’s most celebrated underwater storytellers, shark researchers and conservationists. It’s a call to action for all environmental enthusiasts and future changemakers to protect our beautiful oceans, their animals and their habitats from further threat. Dive straight into 60 years worth of stories as told through objects and ephemera donated by Valerie and her husband Ron Taylor, including cameras and underwater housings, Valerie’s iconic blue fins and dive suits, and the stainless-steel chainmail suit she wore to get up close and personal with sharks. You can also admire Hollywood movie posters from the past fifty years, including Jaws and The Island of Dr Moreau, plus more than 500 images from the Maritime Museum’s collection of animals, people and places now under threat.   Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life is one of the headline exhibitions in the Maritime Museum’s summer program and will run until August 31, 2024. Be sure to catch the other special exhibitions while you’re there including Ocean Photographer of the Year. For more information on the exhibition head here. 

Ray is a farmer. Ray is dying. Ray is falling in love. Ray has had a tough year. Ray mourns his wife. Ray meets his wife. Ray doesn’t want to live in a nursing home. Ray’s kids don’t understand him. Ray doesn’t understand why the world won’t let him live his life. Ray, played with impressive physicality and nuance by veteran actor Colin Friels, is the central figure of Into the Shimmering World – a new work commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company that makes the intimate epic, seesawing back and forth in time but remaining locked in space. The main arena of conflict is the family farm that Ray and his wife, nurse Floss (fellow veteran Kerry Armstrong) have run their entire adult lives. It’s a hard existence, but a rewarding one, contending with droughts, floods, fluctuating markets, and unruly neighbours (one dubbed “The Crook” remains an unseen presence, but a constant source of grievance).  Written by 2020 Patrick White Playwrights Fellow Angus Cerini and directed by STC’s Director of New Work and Artistic Development Paige Rattray, Into the Shimmering World is a study of Australian masculinity – as were the previous works in Cerini’s Australian gothic trilogy, The Bleeding Tree and Wonnangatta. In many ways this play is a study of stoicism, its strengths and its limitations. The laconic Ray meets every challenge with a resigned determination that borders on fatalism, an attitude that has served him well for decades. But the sons his work put through university don’t want to

This is it, we have found the yassification of Shakespeare. Fuelled by a playlist of certified pop hits, this jukebox romp billed as “the greatest love story ever remixed” poses a simple but provocative question: What if, instead of joining Romeo in eternal slumber, Juliet decided to live? A contagiously joyous musical spectacular, & Juliet has finally landed at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre after being met with critical acclaim on Broadway and the West End, not to mention the rapturously received Australian debut in Melbourne.  Filled with sing-a-long-able chart-topping bangers made famous by the likes of Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and more from the songbook of Grammy-winning Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin, the Aussie cast is overflowing with talent in this feel-good, flashy production. & Juliet is Shakespeare remixed for the girls, the gays and the theys... [but does it] really cut it as the feminist reclamation that we are promised? Will you be entertained? Absolutely. Does & Juliet set a new standard for jukebox musicals? Yes. Will you see one of the most diverse and charismatic casts of triple-threats ever assembled on an Australian stage? Heck yeah. Does the story deliver on the feminist retribution we are promised? Not quite. “What if Juliet didn’t kill herself?” Anne Hathaway (played by the enthralling Amy Lehpamer) posits to her husband, William Shakespeare (the ever-charming Rob Mills). “She’s only ever had one boyfriend, and frankly, the endi

If you’ve exhausted your itinerary of school holiday fun and don’t want to resort to another beach or movie trip just to keep the kids away from screens, then you’re in luck. Sydney Kidz Fest is rolling into town this April with plenty to entertain the little ones, and grown-ups can tag along too.  Heading to the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park from April 13-28, this family-friendly festival is pulling out all the stops. Let the wriggly ones burn off any pent-up energy on the dodgem cars or any of the thrilling carnival rides on offer. Treat them to a post-ride sweet treat which you’ll find in the lineup of showbags or try your hand at winning prizes by playing a classic carnival game. Spend hours cooing over barnyard baby animals at the Animal Nursery, an adorable experience perfect for kids too small for the rides.  A special performance is on for the Paw Patrol fans as the beloved characters take to the stage twice daily, plus, win major brownie points with the kids at the lunchtime meet and greet where they can snap a picture up close and personal with their favourite characters, Chase and Marshall.  Entry tickets cost $10 for children, $20 for adults or $50 for a family of four. Pick up 24 coupons for $50 that you can use on rides or games, or grab the all-ages Unlimited Rider wristband, which is great value at just $40 and entitles you to three hours of non-stop rides. Book your tickets early now so you don’t miss out.

What would you do if you were struggling to afford to pay your rent, gas, and electricity bills, only to discover that you’ve been priced out of paying for basic groceries too? When the quick-witted Antonia (the prolific actor Mandy McElhinney – who, yes, is also “Rhonda” from those insurance ads) and her fellow weary housewives discover that prices at the local supermarket have doubled overnight, their shopping run erupts into a revolt. The women begin to loot – or, as Antonia would describe it, “liberate” – food off the shelves. When the excitement is over, Antonia finds herself back home with a random assortment of fruits and vegetables, dog food (she doesn’t own a dog), canary pellets (she doesn’t own a canary) and rabbit heads. She enlists the help of her neighbour Margherita (Emma Harvie) to hide the stolen goods from her moralist husband Giovanni (Glenn Hazeldine), a staunch unionist who’s a stickler for rules and due process. The supermarket riot sets a ripple effect of absurdity in motion, ranging from a briny phantom pregnancy with added  “womb olives”, to an unconscious cop with a flatulence problem – and that’s just the highlights.  ...simultaneously leaves you wheezing from laughter and slightly deaf from the roars of others No Pay? No Way! is two hours and twenty minutes of comedic gold. Marieke Hardy’s laugh-out-loud political satire initially premiered with Sydney Theatre Company in February 2020, before it was plagued by lockdowns. But with the way that the

Comedy, in this economy? Well heck, I don’t know about you, but I could sure do with a good hearty chuckle right about now. So it’s a good thing that the Sydney Comedy Festival is back with its biggest program ever in 2024 – more than 750 artists are gearing up to flood the city with laughter at more than 315 shows scattered across all corners of the city from April 22 to May 19.  From the household names we all know and love to ground-breaking newcomers who are shaking up the comedy scene, you can pick and choose between a kaleidoscopic array of gala showcases, intriguing solo stand-up shows and special events. With a whole lot of tickets coming in at under $30, there really is a “comedy concert” for everyone (just don’t look for Che Diaz on the line-up).  You can catch new shows from legendary Aussie comedians like Rhys Nicholson, Will Anderson, Tom Gleeson, Reuben Kaye, Melanie Bracewell, Steen Raskopolous, regular The Project panellist Peter Helliar, a hilarious night with Judith Lucy and Kaz Cooke, comedy crack pot Reuben Solo, the sassy and sardonic Gen Fricker, Lizzy Hoo (loved for her Prime Video comedy special Hoo Cares!?) and 2022 Australia’s Got Talent finalist Emo Majok. Joining the long list of international stars is the much loved Stephen K Amos, 2016 English Comedian of the Year Josh Pugh, plus the fierce and fiery Irish comic Shane Daniel Byrne, and American history-meets-comedy podcast The Dollop is also heading Down Under for the Festival. Some of the most e

Calling all amateur Egyptologists, history buffs and lovers of gold and glamour: you can explore a blockbuster exhibition packed with priceless Ancient Egyptian artefacts. Exclusive to the country's oldest museum – the Australian Museum in Sydney – Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs is an interactive museum experience more than 3,000 years in the making, and featuring 181 priceless artefacts. The popular exhibition has sold over a record-breaking 330,000 tickets in the first three months alone, becoming the biggest hit in the history of the Australian Museum. Ramses is still in town until May 19, 2024, and the Australian Museum has recently extended its visiting hours, giving you more chances to explore the exhibition after dark. In February, it is now open from 9am–9pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (last entry at 8pm). The museum also continues to be open from 9am–5pm from Thursday to Sunday (last entry at 4pm).  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Time Out Sydney (@timeoutsydney) Ramses is the largest cultural exhibition to visit Australia in more than a decade, and in a huge coup, the Museum even managed to ship over the actual coffin of Ramses the Great for it. You can also excavate further with the museum's Gateway to Egypt public program, an exclusive season of lectures, conversations, and experiences designed to give visitors of all ages a richer understanding of Ancient Egypt, whether an Egyptophile or justEgypto-curious. RECOMMENDED: Thre

April 2024 update: Due to huge demand, SZA has added a third Sydney show, and the support act has now been announced – Californian R&B curator SiR will be joining SZA on the line-up.In major news for R’n’B fans across Australia, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter SZA has just announced the dates for the Australian leg of her S.O.S Tour – she’ll be taking over Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena for two consecutive dates in April. When is SZA in Sydney?  SZA will be taking over the Qudos Bank Arena on April 23, April 24 and April 26 2024, before heading to Melbourne. How can I get tickets to the Sydney SZA show and what are SZA ticket prices for Sydney?   The ticket pre-sale will start on Friday, February 9 via Ticketek – with prices yet to be confirmed. The general sale will begin on Monday, February 12 (2pm local time), with a limit of 10 tickets available per transaction. What will SZA concerts in Australia be like? Few details have been released about what Sydneysiders can expect from the show, but based on previous shows on her S.O.S. Tour – which has taken the artist through Europe, America and Canada – we’re expecting something pretty special. SZA’s shows have been described by The New York Times as "vigorous, confident, theatrical and intimate.” We'd expect nothing less. Who will the Sydney SZA support acts be? The SZA support act has just been announced; with Californian R&B curator SiR set to join SZA on the line-up.Keep tabs on updates over here.   Want more? Sophie Ellis-B