Things to do in Sydney today

Budding horticulturalists who like plants with attitude should head to the Royal Botanical Gardens for a free exhibition of carnivorous greenery. The Calyx is filled with 25,000 of the world’s hungriest, most clever plants. Watch as the venus fly trap lures unsuspecting insects with nectar and snaps them up in its jaws, where they’ll spend their final days being slowly digested. Or meet the drosera, who use their sticky tentacles to attract and snatch their prey before devouring them. Then marvel at the simplicity of the pitcher plant’s hunting technique, which is to lure hapless bugs with honey and let them fall into the pool of digestive enzymes in their pitfall trap. The Plants with Bite display does sound a little like a horror film, but it’s really all bark and no bite (for humans, anyway) and families can expect a very kid-friendly experience. Plus, there is a range of themed education programs, workshops and a regular feeding display that will intrigue little greenthumbs and their grown-ups.

Chatswood is hosting a three-week festival to ring in the Year of the Rat and wave goodbye to 2019’s oinkers. The colourful celebrations will fan out across the suburb with dozens of markets, parades, dining events and art exhibitions. Get lost among the dragons and lanterns at the Golden Market in Chatswood Mall from January 20-February 8. There’ll be a glowing host of more than 35 stalls offering food, decorations, toys, flowers, lucky bamboo and clothes to take into the New Year, as well as musical performances and activities like lion dancing, calligraphy workshops and live K-pop shows. Lunar New Year’s Day is on January 25, and you’ll find more traditional dancing, music, drumming and kung fu demonstrations at the Chatswood Interchange. Then on February 1, it’s Chinese New Year Celebration Day, and Chatswood Mall and the Concourse will be taken over by the huge annual party. More than 8,000 visitors flock to the area to see magic shows, face changing and Chinese Opera. For an after-dark soirée, head to the Lunar New Year Twilight Parade at Chatswood’s CBD on February 8 and find a traditional Chinese parade of colourful floats and props winding down the Chatswood Interchange all the way to Anderson Street. 2020 invites the Metal Rat into our lives, and the year should be characterised by reliability, stability, motivation and a touch of luck.

While the Year of the Rat promises to bring motivation and stability, it’s going to start with a party. The folks at World Square will host a Lunar New Year celebration with traditional performances and augmented reality (AR) shows. They’re making a statement with their ‘ratrobats’, which will be a kind of giant, rodent-based art installation that’s inspired by Chinese acrobatics and performers. The festivities will run for just over a month, when you’ll be able to observe these installations come to life through AR, and watch a spectacular lion dance performed on top of precarious poles.

The annual cultural celebration is the big one on Sydney’s summer must-do list, and the festival’s contemporary programming always manages to surprise. Last year’s highlights included the Helpmann Award-winning Counting and Cracking – a play that transformed Sydney Town Hall into a Sri Lankan village, and Joel Bray's very intimate solo show performed inside a hotel room, Biladurang. In 2020, Sydney Festival will run for 19 days from January 8-26. The program will no doubt include experimental art and premiere performances. Check back in on Wednesday, October 30 to read about the full program.   

Chatswood is hosting a three-week festival to ring in the Year of the Rat and wave goodbye to 2019’s oinkers. The colourful celebrations will fan out across the suburb with dozens of markets, parades, dining events and art exhibitions. Get lost among the dragons and lanterns at the Golden Market in Chatswood Mall from January 20-February 8. There’ll be a glowing host of more than 35 stalls offering food, decorations, toys, flowers, lucky bamboo and clothes to take into the New Year, as well as musical performances and activities like lion dancing, calligraphy workshops and live K-pop shows. Lunar New Year’s Day is on January 25, and you’ll find more traditional dancing, music, drumming and kung fu demonstrations at the Chatswood Interchange. Then on February 1, it’s Chinese New Year Celebration Day, and Chatswood Mall and the Concourse will be taken over by the huge annual party. More than 8,000 visitors flock to the area to see magic shows, face changing and Chinese Opera. For an after-dark soirée, head to the Lunar New Year Twilight Parade at Chatswood’s CBD on February 8 and find a traditional Chinese parade of colourful floats and props winding down the Chatswood Interchange all the way to Anderson Street. 2020 invites the Metal Rat into our lives, and the year should be characterised by reliability, stability, motivation and a touch of luck.

At first glance, this fast-paced sport could be mistaken for a rowdy game of netball or basketball, but don’t be fooled: korfball has its own world of skills and rules. It didn’t take long before we realised our years as a netballer wouldn’t do us much good. This game doesn’t let you live in your safe position bubble – everyone must defend and attack across the court. But that’s just basketball right? Wrong. In korball there are dedicated attack and defence halves where players operate, and after two goals are scored, defenders become attackers and vice versa. There’s also no dribbling basketball-style, but more freedom compared to netball – you can take an extra step and get up close to defend. The korf – which is Dutch for ‘basket’ – is also about half a metre higher than its basketball cousins and placed within the court so you can shoot from behind it. Basically, it’s a bloody rodeo out there. The club’s coach Ben King sums it up well with his favourite korfball introductory line: “It’s like mixed netball without all the rubbish rules.” The ‘mixed’ element is also a unique selling point of the game. There are always four male and four female players on the court, who mark any opponent of the same gender. “The sport was invented by a Dutch primary school teacher,” says King. “He just wanted something that everyone could play together, so he invented this kind of egalitarian sport.” The club’s president Amber Gulamali says they get a lot of players joining the korf s

It’s 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind, and to commemorate the half century since the Moon landing, the Powerhouse Museum is hosting a cosmic exhibition dedicated to the landmark event. The Apollo 11 exhibition will feature more than 200 objects involved the momentous 1969 space journey and other pieces exploring the science, design and historical impact of the event. Star (and Moon) gazers will undoubtedly flock to the accompanying installation, 'Museum of the Moon', which is an intricate replica of the Moon’s surface. Created by UK artist Luke Jerram, the piece combines detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface with ‘moonlight’ (we’re excited to find out how you capture such an aura), and an ethereal soundtrack by BAFTA Award-winning composer Dan Jones to create a gobsmacking experience of the Moon on Earth. The spherical structure measures seven metres in diameter at a ratio of 1:500,000 to detail five kilometres of our favourite glowing sky orb. Beyond that mesmerising display, you can investigate intriguing specimens like a feed horn (a device which collects radio waves) from the famed Parkes Radio Telescope, which received the very first images of the Moon landing that were broadcast around the world (well done New South Wales). There’s also part of the Redstone Rocket, which flung the first American into space, and an Olivetti Programma 101 computer, which is the kind of processor used by NASA to calculate the famed launch and landing.

When it comes to over-the-top displays of Chrissy lights, the Hunter Valley Gardens really takes the pudding. The well-manicured greenery of these parklands has been bejewelled with some three million lights, making up more than 20 interactive displays. You’d have to be a real grinch not to be charmed by the Southern Hemisphere's largest light show.  Wander through tunnels of light, dream no longer of a white Christmas with a snowy display filled with arctic animals and frost-capped trees, have a cheeky kiss under the mistletoe at the romantic Lovers' Corner, and talk everyone’s ears off about your gap year in Europe (or the places you dream of ticking off your bucket list) at the Around the World display. While they're certainly the main event, there’s more than just lights on offer. There are also rides for the little ones, carollers crooning every night until Boxing Day, live entertainers, and food and drink stalls to round out your outing. Start a new tradition with hot chocolate and churros, or feast on loaded fries, dumplings, spuds, pizza, burritos, burgers, hotdogs, crepes, pancakes, donuts, gelato and more. The Christmas Lights Spectacular is open every evening from 5.30–10pm (excluding Christmas Day), but you can also wander the grounds during daylight hours, from 9am–4pm. The festive magic will continue into the new year, with the displays open to the public until January 26.