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Installation view of Biennale of Sydney exhibitions at White Bay Power Station and AGNSW
Photographs: Alannah Le Cross | Installation view of Biennale of Sydney exhibitions at White Bay Power Station and AGNSW

Things to do in Sydney this week

Wondering what to do across Sydney? Our list will guide you in the right direction

Winnie Stubbs
Written by
Winnie Stubbs
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Sydney’s biennial celebration of contemporary art – Biennale of Sydney – is back, taking over galleries (and a repurposed power station) across the city with an incredible curation of art work from some of the world’s leading contemporary artists. If you’re keen to get amongst it, we’d suggest hitting up the recently refurbished Dry Dock Hotel for a schooner and an elevated pub feed afterwards, or swinging by the sparkly new Casa Esquina for a Limoncello-spiked Aperol Spritz. Looking for a more food-centric cultural experience? Ramadan Nights Lakemba is alive and kicking until April 8 – with food stalls slinging culinary delights from around the globe. For a live music fix, choose from tons of options on the Great Southern Nights program – or head to Newtown’s new late night bar and live music venue and let the lords of Pleasure Club decide for you. 

Want more this week? How about starting the day at one of our city's best outdoor swimming pools, then booking in for dinner at one of the best restaurants in Sydney right now

The best things to do in Sydney

  • Things to do
  • Food and drink
  • Lakemba

For people of Islamic faith, Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year. During this time, Muslim folks fast from dawn to dusk. But once the sun sets, iftar begins – a fast-breaking feast that runs late into the night and where family and friends gather to enjoy an array of rich treats and moreish morsels. To coincide with this time of year, Sydney’s popular month-long celebration Ramadan Nights Lakemba is returning, kicking off on Saturday, March 9 and running until Monday, April 8 2024. What time does Lakemba Night Markets open and close? From 5pm until 3am every evening, more than 70 local businesses will transform Lakemba’s Haldon Street into a vibrant, global food bazaar with traditional cuisine from Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, Lebanon, the Cocos Islands, Syria and more. It’s not only Sydney’s Muslim communities that comes together during Ramadan Nights – people of all backgrounds are welcome to flock to sample the fare of pop-up kitchens lining Haldon Street and Railway Parade. Last year saw 1.4 million people experience the celebrations, with organisers saying this year is going to be even bigger and better than ever.  What started as a single street barbeque back in 2012, Ramadan Nights Lakemba is now considered by many to be one of Australia's best places to celebrate the ancient tradition. What kind of food will there be? Break fast with with roti and gentle lentil curries from the Cocos Islands; Malaysia's famously buttery grilled pastry parcels, murtabak; and

  • Art
  • price 0 of 4
  • Sydney

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

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours
  • Sydney

Even for born-and-bred Sydneysiders, the opportunity to explore a completely empty Opera House doesn’t come around every day. On this one hour tour though, you’ll get incredible access to (almost) every corner of our city’s most famous building. You’ll get the chance to explore all of the theatres (providing there isn’t a show in session) – from the majestic Concert Hall to the quaint Drama Theatre. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get a sneak peek of a rehearsal.  Walk along the outside of the Opera House, past roped off areas, and learn everything there is to know about Sydney’s famous house of art and culture. Find out where the materials to build the Opera House came from and run your hands along a few of the million white ceramic tiles that make up the glistening exterior. For those more interested in diving into a specific area of the phenomenal building, be that the food, architecture or behind the scenes, a range of speciality tours are on offer. Head straight from the tour to lunch at Opera Bar or House Canteen with the daily Tour and Dine, or for something more elevated you can book in Taste of the House which runs on the last Sunday of the month and takes you on the ultimate Opera House dining experience. Starting off at Opera Bar, you’ll stop in at House Canteen and Midden before ending at the five star fine dining restaurant Bennelong.  Get in early on Saturday mornings for an architectural tour when you can discover what inspired the Danish architect Jorn Utzon to e

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Theatre
  • Circuses
  • Sydney

This raucous show could be the closest you’ll get to spending a whirlwind evening inside an extravagant Baz Luhrmann flick. Taking over The Studio in the belly of the Sydney Opera House, Gatsby at the Green Light is a sauced-up variety show that transports audiences into a pop-up, vintage-inspired night club (complete with a functional bar). Think of this production as a sort of live concept album – featuring a smorgasboard of circus acts, top-shelf burlesque, evocative live singing, and impressive aerial artistry – with the rare art of hair-hanging to boot.  Gatsby cherry-picks from the glitz and glamour of one of Jay Gatsby’s famous parties, remixes it, and serves it up as an escapist fantasy where the roaring ’20s meets the 2020s. In doing so, this show masters the timeless allure of a particular niche of spectacle: watching profusely talented and beautiful people performing seriously difficult tricks and dangling precariously in the air (before elegantly dismounting with a brazen wink). ARIA-nominated singer Odette is a stand out member of the ensemble, the earthy and mystical vocal quality of the siren of the Inner West providing a soulful connective thread to the mixed bag of acts. Odette collaborated with musical director Kim Moyes (best known as one-half of iconic Australian electronic duo The Presets) on an original song for the production – although, it’s her covers of hit songs that will continue to play on repeat in your mind (her audacious take on ‘Money (That’s

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  • Museums
  • Science
  • Darling Harbour

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. 

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Theatre
  • Musicals
  • Elizabeth Bay

Zombies are everywhere in our collective bra(aaa)ins. There are the original mindless brain-eaters of Dawn of the Dead, dancing Michael Jackson zombies in ‘Thriller’, speedy zombies in 28 Days Later, silly zombies in Shaun of the Dead, rom-com zombies in Warm Bodies, family sitcom zombies in Santa Clarita Diet, and for the employment law nerds, there are even zombie agreements reaching from beyond their pre-2010 grave.  Known for their pulpy gruesomeness and strange social satire, zombie films also have a reputation for being made on shoestring budgets and garnering devoted cult followings – just like a lot of live theatre. So it only makes sense that the next musical from writer/composer Laura Murphy (The Lovers, and “Australia’s Hamilton” The Dismissal) features singing, dancing, and manipulative zombies. Zombie! isn’t all silliness. Murphy brings the leading ladies together in their pursuit of something more – meatier parts for women in musicals... Much like its predecessors, this musical is veritably stuffed with meta-musical-theatre references, camp (gory) goodness, and genre-bending tunes that crawl right into your heart. Murphy’s triple-threat zombies also have something to say about “girl power” in musicals, and the never-ending fight to see three dimensional women on Broadway stages. While we would like to see these arguments for dealing with sexism more fully fleshed out, Zombie! The Musical is host to an exciting premise (healing viruses through the magic of music

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Theatre
  • Drama
  • Sydney

The founding of a bank – even one so infamously entangled in the financial catastrophe that led to the greatest economic crash since the Great Depression – may not immediately sound like a promising premise for a play. However, Ben Power’s skillful adaptation of Stefano Massini’s drama about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers – the banking colossus that imploded in 2008, heralding the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis – uses this seemingly specific subject matter as a far broader lens. Part memoir, part history lesson, it’s a story that not only charts the fortune and failure of the Lehman family, but also the birth of modern American capitalism and the insatiable greed that feeds it. This intergenerational epic is split into three parts told over three-and-a-half hours (with two intervals, mercifully). It begins in the mid-1800s with the arrival of the first of the Lehman dynasty to enter America: Bavarian immigrant brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer. Their humble, hard-grafting entrepreneurism is noble enough at first, as they open a small shop in Alabama selling fabrics and suits. However, when disaster strikes the local cotton plantations around their adopted home, the three brothers spy opportunity in the ashes. For more than a century, this instinct for plucking profit from tragedy allows the Lehman's and their descendants to generate enormous wealth from slavery, war and numerous other breeds of human suffering. And as their power and influence ascends, so too

  • Things to do
  • Fairs and festivals
  • Moore Park

The great-value Ingenia Holiday Parks Sydney Family Show is returning this autumn at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park, set to keep both the little – and not-so-little – kids entertained while creating treasured memories. This year, the festivities kick off on Saturday, March 23 and will run to Monday, April 1. The jam-packed program features everything from a bunny hopping competition on Good Friday to high-energy motorcycle and bike stunt shows, carnival-style games and a carousel the whole family can enjoy. There will also be an adrenaline-pumping obstacle course, dodgem cars, a thrilling reptile show where you can get up close with snakes and crocs, an exhilarating pig race, and an animal nursery with cuddly ducklings, chicks, lambs, goats and piglets. Of course, there will be showbags galore too.  Be sure to go for a wander through the Easter Basket Zone and stock up on some treats. Animal lovers will be pleased to know that Dogs in the Park, a local not-for-profit determined to bring dog owners together, is returning on March 24, with market stalls (selling treats, accessories and personalised pooch ribbons), competitions and demonstrations.  Entry tickets to the Ingenia Holiday Parks Sydney Family Show cost $15 for children, $30 for adults or $70 for a family of four. To wander through the Easter Basket Zone, you’ll be set back $12. All of the fab shows, animal displays and demos are free with admission, but showbags, rides and games are paid for separately. The

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Theatre
  • Drama
  • Sydney

One of the most talked about performances to hit the Sydney stage in recent years is back. Local legend Heather Mitchell is donning the robes again to embody the late, great feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg in RBG: Of Many, One – a powerful one-woman show penned by Suzie Miller, the lawyer-turned-playwright behind international smash-hit Prima Facie (and more recently, Jailbaby at Griffin). Sydney Theatre Company is bringing this impactful play to the Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House from February 9 to March 30, kicking off an extensive national tour including seasons in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. Read on for our review from the Australian premiere... What does it take to stand firm in a rushing tide? One that suddenly comes not just from the expected direction, but from all of them, buffeting a woman from side to side?  Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the great legal mind, feminist, and later, improbably, the pop culture darling, would know better than most. And RBG: Of Many, One, written by Suzie Miller (of Prima Facie fame) and directed by Priscilla Jackman (White Pearl) tries to trace that journey, and let the audience feel the rush of all those tides.  So how did Heather Mitchell, the actress known for her screen appearance in Binge’s Love Me, and previously, for playing prominent transgender writer and former Australian Defence Force officer Catherine McGregor in the 2018 STC play Still Point Turning: The Catherine McGregor Story, find it within herself to embody an

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Theatre
  • Drama
  • Surry Hills

At first glance, Tommy Murphy’s adaptation of activist and actor Tim Conigrave’s achingly beautiful memoir, Holding the Man, seems to have all the ingredients of a classic AIDS parable: young love defying the heteronormative status quo; young life cruelly stolen by a merciless disease. And yet, following its premiere by Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company in 2006 – and despite a popularity with audiences that saw it transfer to the Sydney Opera House before becoming a film – this play suffered accusations of not doing enough to confront the political and social alienation that failed Australia’s earliest victims of the HIV/AIDS crisis. And this would arguably be true, if such ends were ever Conigrave’s, or indeed Murphy’s, intention. The biggest clue that those criticisms are off-target comes in the play’s closing seconds, as the audience is told of the memoir’s dedication – “For John” – a tribute to the man Tim Conigrave loved for more than half his life until John’s AIDS-related death on January 26, 1992 at the age of 31. In these two words, the truth of Holding the Man is revealed. This is not a political act in the same vein as William Hoffman’s trailblazing As Is or Tony Kushner's epic masterpiece Angels In America – plays that howl for justice, that hold a mirror up to the ugliness of society’s apathy, that pitch their dramatis personae as agents of change. Holding the Man is an honestly drawn lived experience – joyous, devastating, deeply intimate, but crucially, unbound

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