Max your summer in Sydney

The Biennale of Sydney returns for its 25th edition from March 14 to June 14, 2026 – and, as always, it’s completely free. Titled Rememory, this year’s festival is curated by internationally renowned artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi. Inspired by the writing of Toni Morrison, the theme explores how memory and history shape who we are. Through powerful artworks from Australia and around the world, artists reflect on their roots to connect with communities by telling their stories. At its heart, Rememory shines a light on voices that haven’t always been heard. It highlights First Nations stories, diverse diasporas and the layered histories that have shaped Australia.  As Australia’s largest contemporary art event, the Biennale stretches across five major venues: White Bay Power Station, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery. Extra talks, performances and events will pop up across Greater Sydney, with a big opening night concert, Lights On, kicking things off at White Bay Power Station on March 13. This year's festival features 83 collaborations from artists across 37 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Lebanon, Argentina and Ethiopia. Expect large-scale installations, immersive works and site-specific pieces from both international and Australian artists. A major highlight is the Ngurrara Canvas II at the Art Gallery of NSW – an 80-square-metre...

Sydney is a city known for its coastline, so it makes sense that Australia’s largest cultural and science event for the ocean would take place on our sparkly shores.  Running until the end of March, Sydney’s Ocean Lovers Festival is back with a month-long celebration of wellness, culture, food, film, art and outdoor adventures – and this year it’s not just taking over Bondi, it’s a Sydney-wide celebration of the sea. Whether you’re looking for a sunrise yoga session, a beach clean session, an ocean-related film premiere or a hands-on creative workshop, there’s a whole lot to dive into (pardon the pun), with most events free or low-cost. On Friday, 6 March, events are kicking off with a Women Making Waves Harbour Cruise, spotlighting women driving change in ocean science, sport and sustainability.The launch weekend fun will carry on in Manly, with sunrise yoga by the cove, breathwork, the Ocean Discovery Zone for kids, and the Big Manly Beach Clean (Sunday, March 8). The next week will keep encouraging Sydneysiders to get outdoors, with the Seabirds to Seascapes Cruise on March 11 taking curious ocean lovers on a harbour tour that blends wildlife education, conservation and v good coastal views. Keen to keep moving? Paddle into sunrise with the Eco Kayak Tour (March 14) by Sydney By Kayak, or join for the behind-the-scenes Living Seawalls Tour (March 15) showcasing Sydney’s innovative marine habitats. The Ocean Lovers Festival Bondi Weekend (March 21-22) will be packed with...

The question of meaning has long shaped the human condition, at once a source of existential anxiety and a catalyst for some of the world’s most powerful artistic expression. For some, purpose is not pursued but inherited – something life quietly unfolds in its own time, revealing itself only in hindsight. For others, it is a relentless obsession, a restlessness that has driven monks, scholars and countless others towards faith, philosophy and protest in the hope of naming and securing it. Whatever the path, one thing remains certain: purpose is a question that sits within all of us.  Sydney Theatre Company has built a reputation for championing African American voices, staging landmark works by writers such as August Wilson (Fences, 2023) and Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun, 2022). While those productions connected Australian audiences with enduring American classics, Purpose offers a voice unmistakably of the present, one grappling with the complexity of living in a world that is hyper-aware of itself.  The play premiered on Broadway in the 2024-25 season, winning the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It's rare for Australian audiences to encounter work with such immediacy; more often, international successes arrive years after their debut. Its programming signals that new artistic director Mitchell Butel may be shaping a tenure characterised by currency. At a moment when conversations around race, human rights, identity, politics...

Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum (soon to be plural) might technically have its doors closed right now, but the programming team isn't letting up. From Sydney Observatory’s Sunset Variations lighting up Friday nights to a lunar celebration timed to a rare blood moon, they’ve brought a solid selection of gems to the city’s cultural calendar this summer – and now they’re adding a delightfully left-of-field photography exhibition to the mix. From March 3-26, Powerhouse and the Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner will present NSW at Night, a punchy new photography exhibition lighting up Parliament House’s Fountain Court. The collection is formed of freshly commissioned works by four standout NSW photographers capturing the people, places and pulse that define life after dark – from inner-city Sydney to Western Sydney, Wollongong and the Northern Rivers. Six-time Walkley winner Andrew Quilty has turned his lens to Sydney’s train network, finding poetry in commuters suspended between where they’ve been and where they’re headed. Northern Rivers-based photographer Tajette O’Halloran has documented youth culture and rites of passage in the region, while Illawarra-based Anthony Rigby-Smith has deep dived into the sweat, camaraderie and endorphin highs of Wollongong’s evening run clubs. Meanwhile, Jade D’Amico has embedded themself in Sydney’s music and club scene, bottling the movement, colour and gorgeous chaos of a night out in the city. The result is an intimate, unfiltered...

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of our fave places to hang out year-round – and this December it welcomes a banging new exhibition from Melbourne-born artist Ron Mueck. Ron Mueck: Encounter is the artist’s largest exhibition ever in Australia, bringing together a stunning selection of his hyperreal human sculptures from around the globe.  The life-like and scaled up sculptures aim to challenge perceptions by offering a profound and observational look at the human experience. Grounded in realism, the captivating figures tenderly embody themes such as birth, death, alienation and togetherness.  After making his start in children’s television, Mueck trained under Jim Henson (The Muppets) in puppeteering and model making where he made a name for himself on major projects including Sesame Street and the film Labyrinth. Soon after he relocated to London to run his own animatronic studio, before finding his way to figurative sculptures in the late ‘90s and revitalising the medium.  Ron Mueck: Encounter runs daily from December 6 to April 12, 10am–5pm, and until 10pm on Wednesday nights, as part of the Sydney International Art Series, a government initiative that teams up with Destination NSW to bring the world’s most prolific artists exclusively to Sydney. Tickets are $35 for adults on weekdays, $37 on weekends and public holidays, with two-for-one Art After Hours deals on Wednesday evenings, or $45 flexi tickets (which are un-dated single entry tickets). You can book...

If you've ever wondered what would happen if a kid's drawing of their wildest dream utopia suddenly came off the page and into real life, you're in luck, because that's pretty much what's happening right now beneath the Art Gallery of NSW.  Artist and professional disruptor Mike Hewson has taken over the weird subterranean world of The Tank with his one-of-a-kind new exhibition, Mike Hewson: The Key's Under the Mat, where for the first time ever, all the main lights in the normally pitch-dark Tank will be switched on, revealing a weird wonderland of interactive art pieces and play equipment that have to be seen to be believed. We're talking: A steam room with stained glass windows that you can actually sit in, a functioning sauna with bespoke church pews, five actual operating public barbeques that you can cook on, rushing water to play in (seriously, bring your swimmers), a working laundry,  and a free-to-use recording studio, plus a whole plethora of bright and delightful surprises that are all about getting community together, to do cool stuff, for free. Basically, break your imagination and delete all adult expectations. This is unlike anything we've ever seen.  Kids who aren't afraid of some risk are also one of Hewson's big targets with this show (although parents, rest easy, the floor is specially made out of recycled soft rubber that's rated for use in public playgrounds), with the space also home to a wild children's playground. Intrepid kidlets can test their...

In the current online climate, we're all rolling around in the screen-fuelled dystopia of the AI-verse, and things are feeling pretty weird. Strangely convincing videos and eerily-real (yet not quite) photos have taken over the internet, and with it, our collective perception of reality. Whether it's the current US President or your mum, there are few folks on the planet today who aren't grappling with the inane and mysterious powers of artificial intelligence. It is this truth that has launched the MCA's groundbreaking exhibition, aptly titled Data Dreams: Art and AI, an immersive and first-of-its-kind art show that is sweeping through a series of interconnected gallery spaces in the MCA until April 27, 2026. Featuring the groundbreaking works of ten otherwordly artists from all around the world, Data Dreams is setting itself up to be a guide to cut through the misinformation and brainrot so frequently associated with AI. Through immersive installations, AI-films and hallucinatory imagery, the exhibition aims to spark your curiosity, challenge your thinking and ponder what to expect from the years to come.  You'll be pointed through Big Questions, like how technology influences power, how our algorithims are shaping each of our individual world views, and how to navigate an illusory "reality".  The artists asking you to expand your mind come from all over, and each of them have something very fascinating to say. From palawa artist Angie Abdilla's work 'Meditation on...

Sydney’s immersive art scene is on the up and up, with Balloon Story, Museum of Illusions and Mike Hewson’s The Key’s Under the Mat all alive and kicking in the Harbour City. Now, there’s more. Landing right in the middle of the CBD, DigiPark is a brand-new digital playground that blends science, art, education and entertainment into one futuristic, all-ages experience. Fresh from huge success across Asia, this is the first DigiPark to open in Australia, bringing 19 interactive attractions to Level 5 of Westfield Sydney, just steps from the centre’s ever-busy food precinct. Highlights include the Space & Time Cube, a trippy 3D holographic tunnel that pulls you into a swirling world of light and colour, and the Orbital Cinema (7D) – a flying adventure powered by a massive 180-degree curved screen, motion seats and special effects like wind, vibration and water spray (no VR headset required). There’s also a 3D Figurine Creator Studio, where you can scan yourself and walk away as a custom mini digital avatar, plus dreamy installations like Wandering Planet, Cosmic Space and the Holographic Studio, which blur the line between reality and the virtual world. According to DigiPark’s Head of Sales and Marketing, Jacques Wong, the venue is designed to hook everyone from curious kids to culture-hungry adults – with VR, holograms, kinetic light art, digital play and 3D printing all under one roof. Open seven days a week from 10am to 10pm, DigiPark welcomes all ages (kids under 12...

If you’re craving something surreal to snap you out of reality for an hour or so, Sydney’s recently opened Museum of Illusions has got your back. The first Aussie outpost of the global concept, this interactive exhibition invites visitors to step into gravity-defying rooms, giant 3D illusions, mind-bending perspective zones, holograms and other sensory experiences – in a vast space spanning over 900 square metres in the heart of the CBD.With more than 80 unique exhibits to explore, the museum doesn’t directly follow its global siblings – it’s packed with bespoke Sydney-inspired rooms that you won’t find anywhere else. There’s a ‘Reversed Room’ inspired by a classic Aussie pub, a ‘Building Illusion’ which echoes Sydney’s iconic skyline, and an immersive exhibit called ‘Following Eyes’ – a playful nod to sunscreen-slapping beach days. Part science, part spectacle, part pure fun, the Museum of Illusions is perfect for families, curious minds, and any office worker who’s finding the return to work a little tricky. Whether you’re chasing an escape from the here and now or an Instagram goldmine, or you’re just keen to see your friends wobble in a room that defies gravity, it’s a one-stop shop for awe, giggles and head-scratching wonder. The experience is open now at 413 George Street in Sydney’s CBD, with regular admission tickets for $47 and family tickets offering slightly reduced rates. We’d suggest giving around 60–90 minutes for wandering, posing, and rethinking the laws of...

Theatre fans, take note. Sydney Theatre Company – Sydney’s largest and most prominent theatre producer – has just dropped the details for its 2026 season. The beautifully varied 2026 season will comprise 13 productions, with more than 80 beloved and emerging performers set to take to the stage throughout the year. Following Kip Williams' departure from the company, the 2026 season will be the first curated by new Artistic Director Mitchell Butel, who joined STC in late 2025. Reflecting on what theatre-goers can expect in 2026, Butel described the 2026 program as a "season of dream teams: celebrating the diversity of Australian storytelling. Highlights from STC’s 2026 season will include three world premieres of brand-new Australian works, the Australian Premiere of the most awarded Broadway play of 2025, the Sydney premiere of a new Australian musical and a handful of other Australian and international plays. If you’re keen to see something new, get in line for the season’s key world premieres: Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical (from award-winning writer and director Jack Yabsley), Bennelong in London (by Jane Harrison, the brilliant playwright behind The Visitors and Stolen) and Strong is the New Pretty by Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller. Bennelong in London will be showing from July 24 until August 16 2026, Strong is the New Pretty will be playing from October 26 until December 5 2026, and Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical will be showing...