Things to do in Sydney today

Movie nights are fun. Movie nights with front-row seats overlooking Sydney Harbour? Now we're talking. Pier One Sydney Harbour is giving movies a decadent glow-up with Harbourside Cinema by Pier One – a private open-air cinema set on its Sunset Balcony Suite. Available until September 30, the experience transforms the suite's waterfront terrace into your own luxe outdoor cinema, complete with a cosy love seat, blankets and a projector screen framed by our spectacular harbour. You pick the movie – whether it’s a rom-com or an action-packed adventure – then settle in as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Luna Park provide a stunning backdrop. Getting to the all-important movie snacks: a dedicated Ultimate Movie Night trolley rolls up to your suite loaded with buttery popcorn and DIY Yo-Chi frozen yoghurt, complete with toppings. Feeling hungrier? Order everything from loaded fries and Wagyu cheeseburgers to baked brie and artisan cheeseboards from the Pier Bar food and drink menu which is sent straight to your room. Harbourside Cinema by Pier One costs $150 per experience on top of the nightly suite rate, so this is definitely a treat-yourself experience. Additional guests are $50 per person, with a maximum capacity of eight guests per booking. Once you book the Harbourside Cinema package, their team will be in touch to organise any additional guests, movie night trolley timings, plus food and drink pre-orders. All you need to do is pick the movie. Find out more here.  Stay in...

’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.

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.

Back in May, sommelier Nick Hildebrandt and chef Brent Savage announced they would be closing their fine diner Bentley Restaurant and Bar this winter after more than 20 years at the top of its game (and five-star reviews from Time Out). The award-winning restaurant, which originally opened in Surry Hills in 2006 before moving to its current home in Sydney’s CBD on O’Connell Street in 2013, is housed within a heritage sandstone building dating back to the 1850s, now part of The Paradox Hotel Sydney. It will have its final service at the end of August. But because this is the Bentley Group we’re talking about – talent who are always one step ahead of the curve and not afraid to change things up, close the curtains when the time is right, or start fresh when opportunity arises (see: Monopole, Cirrus, Yellow, King Clarence, Watermans, and the soon-to-open Ashe and Bar Vespertine, for example) – this isn’t goodbye for good. Instead, Hildebrandt and Savage are on the lookout for the next perfect home for Bentley’s third act. “This feels less like an ending and more like a natural moment to pause and reset,” says Hildebrandt. “The move from Crown Street to the CBD was a defining evolution for Bentley, and now it feels like the right time for that next transformation.” For the final few months of service, Bentley Restaurant and Bar has rolled out the culinary red carpet with a greatest hits menu for both the tasting menu and bar menu – featuring the restaurant’s best dishes over...

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...