Things to do in Sydney this week

The Met Gala might be behind us, but the biggest annual event of Sydney’s fashion calendar is just around the corner. Australian Fashion Week (AFW) will be taking over Carriageworks for four fabulous days – transforming the sprawling post-industrial space into a central hub of talks, workshops and runways for Australia’s fashion royalty.AFW 2025 kicks off on Monday, May 12, and will run until Friday, May 16. While 2024 saw the event open up to the public – with many shows, talks and pop-up bars available to attend without any affiliation with the fashion industry – this year’s event is more of an industry-focused affair. The not-for-profit model is designed to boost Australia’s fashion and design industries, bringing emerging designers and students together with some of the biggest names in the industry including Alix Higgins, Bianca Spender, Carla Zampatti, Aje, Romance Was Born and SIR. the label. And though it’s designed for the fashion industry, don’t let that intimidate you – there are plenty of ways us mere mortals can get involved with Sydney’s biggest celebration of style.  First up, Second Life Markets (one of Australia’s most beloved vintage and second-hand markets) is popping up at Machine Hall with a huge archive sale, bringing an impeccable curation of clothes and accessories to the stunning CBD space from Saturday, May 10 until Sunday, May 11 (book your tickets here). Two weeks later, on Saturday, May 24, Machine Hall is playing host to a huge...

If you’re of a certain age, you have history (HIStory, perhaps?) with Michael Jackson. I remember getting ‘Thriller’ on cassette as a kid. ‘Dangerous’ was one of the first CDs I ever owned. I remember seeing the extended music video for ‘Thriller’ on VHS, which came packaged with a behind-the-scenes documentary. One woman, cornered for a quick vox pop at one of the filming locations, asserted that she loved Jackson because he was “down to earth”, which is darkly hilarious in hindsight.  Down to earth? The press called him “wacko Jacko” – we all did. He slept in a hyperbaric chamber. He owned the Elephant Man’s skeleton. His skin kept getting paler, his nose thinner. What a weird guy! Was any of it true? Hard to say. Even today, when a careless tweet is like a drop of blood in a shark tank to fans and journos alike, the media furor around Michael Jackson stands as one of the most frenetic in living memory, eclipsing the likes of Beatlemania. Jackson wasn’t bigger than God, he was God to a lot of people – the King of Pop, the first Black artist to smash through the MTV colour barrier, an artist, an icon, a living legend. Then came the allegations of child sexual abuse, which first began in August 1993, and continue to this day. For those who were still on the fence, the documentary Leaving Neverland, released in 2019, saw many more fans abandon Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50. And so, it makes sense that MJ the Musical would set Jackson’s relationship with the...

Australia’s most popular arts event is back in action for 2025, with the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes bringing a fresh batch of painterly expressions to the walls of the Art Gallery of NSW from May 10 to August 17.  They call it “the face that stops the nation”, and the Archibald Prize has indeed been courting controversy and conversation for more than a century now. This popular portrait prize is always filled with famous faces, with artists from all over Australia (and also New Zealand) capturing the spirit of the times through paintings that capture the likeness of the personalities that define their communities. Julie Fragar is the winner of the 2025 Archibald Prize – she won over the judges with a stunning portrait of fellow artist Justene Williams (read more). RECOMMENDED: A beginner's guide to the Archibald Prize. The winner of the 2025 Packing Room Prize was announced a week earlier, with the Packing Room Pickers (a.k.a. the Art Gallery staff who receive, unpack and hang the entries) selecting Abdul Abdullah's striking painting of fellow finalist Jason Phu as their favourite Archibald portrait this year (read more here). Meanwhile, the Wynne Prize awards the best landscape painting of Australian scenery or figurative sculpture, and the Sulman is awarded to the best genre painting, subject painting or mural project. (Find out more about the 2025 winners over here.) The annual finalists exhibition is a real must-see, with each prize attracting diverse entries...

Since it first opened its doors way back in 1997, Club 77 has firmly claimed its place among Sydney’s best nightclubs – acting as a reliable dance den for generations of Sydneysiders. Through the years that the lockout laws blighted our nightlife, the underground Darlinghurst icon delivered consistently good music and the kind of unfettered vibes you want at 2am, a few shots of tequila down. In 2022, the club (referred to mostly as Sevs) stepped up its game, introducing a new cocktail menu and two (two!) daily happy hours. All that’s to say: this place has done a lot for Sydney after dark. Now, to celebrate its 28th birthday, Sevs is doing even more: throwing a month-long program, bringing some of its favourite DJs back behind the decks for 19 nights of on-point parties. The birthday month will reach its peak with a high-energy party brought to life by the Bang Gang, the party collective responsible for a fair proportion of Sydney’s best parties back in the 2000s, when Sevs was in its infancy. The Sydney-born party collective will bring their signature brand of chaotic, electro-fuelled fun back to Club 77 on Friday, May 16 for a high-energy party with Tom Trago and a yet-to-be-announced special guest. Throughout the month, the beloved underground venue will also play host to a carefully curated line-up of local and international/interstate DJs, with Vancouver-based DJ D.Dee and Perth-based producer Mowgli joining Club 77 residents including Mike Who, Deepa, Barney Kato,...

If you can’t quite hack the requisite international airfare and/or annual leave to explore the Amazon, meet polar bears, or go deep sea diving right now, there is another method for getting up close and personal with some of the world’s most incredible animals.  For the 60th year in a row, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will arrive in Sydney on loan from London’s Natural History Museum. Taking root at the National Maritime Museum, this stunning collection of photographs will be on show in Sydney from Thursday, May 15 until Sunday, October 19.  This incredibly prestigious photography event is centred on drawing attention to the wild beauty and fragility of the natural world. This year, judges had to look at a baffling 59,228 entries from photographers of all ages and experience levels from 117 countries and territories, and were faced with the near-impossible task of whittling these down to just over 100 photo finalists. The images that made this year’s exhibition captures mesmerising snapshots of fascinating animal behaviour and stunning secret moments in the hearts of the world’s most unreachable places.The prestigious Grand Title this year went to Canadian Marine Conservation Photojournalist, Shane Gross, for his incredible underwater image of a community of western toad tadpoles. The award for Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year went to German photographer Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas for his up-close image Life Under Dead Wood. Of the talented Aussie...

Dreaming of a road trip and coastal getaway? We’ve got just the thing. Naturellement – a two-day food and wine festival showcasing the best small-scale producers in New South Wales – is happening this month at Galleria Ettalong Beach on the beautiful Central Coast. Spearheaded by two Cenny Coast locals – booze expert Mike Bennie of P&V and Kristy Austin, founder of creative experience agency We Are Neighbourhood – Naturellement aims to celebrate artisan, natural, organic and small-batch food and drink producers, across two days of serious wining and dining on May 17 and 18. Expect more than 120 drink tastings, delicious eats, a killer music line-up and chats with farmers and producers on everything from sustainability to regenerative farming. “This is a celebration of NSW and the ACT’s artisan, boutique and avant-garde producers,” says Bennie. “It’s also an opportunity to introduce Australians – particularly those in our large cities like Sydney and Melbourne – to regional centres like the Central Coast. They have a bounty of incredible food, wine, beer, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks on offer – so why shouldn’t there be a festival that showcases and shares it with the rest of the country?” Food-wise, top-notch Aussie chefs Alanna Sapwell-Stone (The Eltham Hotel), Matt Stone (Ciao Mate, You Beauty), and Jake Kellie (of Adelaide restaurant Arkhé) will all be there, collaborating and serving up flavour-packed plates. If you’re keen to deepen your wine knowledge, a range of...

Just over a decade since it was last seen in Australia, Annie is back – bursting onto the Capitol Theatre stage filled with optimism, joy, and hope. Director Karen Mortimer revives this quintessential piece of musical theatre with a sentimental production that preserves the charm and flair found in Thomas Meehan’s book. For those living under a rock (mainly me), this Tony Award-winning musical follows the story of 11-year-old Annie, who is growing up in an orphanage in 1930s New York, under the cruel eye of Miss Hannigan. In the midst of the Great Depression, pessimism is all around, but chipper young Annie has the antidote: hope. Encouraging others to believe that “the sun will come out tomorrow”, Annie’s enduringly positive spirit seems to finally pay off, when billionaire Oliver Warbucks chooses to take her in for two weeks over Christmas. Four spirited young performers share the titular role in this production, alongside an alternating cast of child actors. On opening night, Dakota Chanel’s Annie is a ray of sunshine, fully embodying the doe-eyed optimism of the character, balancing warmth and comedy with the more tender and emotional segments. The whole ensemble of “orphans” share an incredible chemistry, which is strongly on display in their performance of ‘It’s The Hard Knock Life’. The stakes are high when it comes to such a well-known and well-loved song, but this ensemble more than meets the challenge with a passionate and committed performance.  Annie is the...

Ah, the Titanic. An unsinkable cultural icon, the “Ship of Dreams” has appeared in almost as many movies and stage productions as the songs of Canada’s queen of the power ballad, Céline Dion. It’s even got a two-and-a-half-hour (surprisingly serious) movie musical adaptation based on Maury Yeston’s Titanic: the Musical. Although, none can hold a candle to the cultural impact of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster – you know, the one with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. So, with nostalgia being such hot property right now, it was only a matter of time before we got the camp-as-hell musical fantasia made-for-and-by-the-gays that is Titanique. Created by Marla Mindelle (who originated the role of Céline Dion – well, as imagined in this show), Constantine Rousouli (who originated the role of Jack) and director Tye Blue (whose countless industry credits include working on the casting team of RuPaul’s Drag Race), Titanique is revisionist history at its best. Loaded with Céline Dion’s greatest bangers, it casts Queen Dion herself (played so wonderfully by cabaret legend Marney McQueen here in Aus) as the narrator of the tragic tale, who continuously places herself at the center of the action – quite literally – much to Jack and Rose’s repeated dismay. It brings the campness of the film to the front, with Stephen Anderson (Mary Poppins) playing Rose’s awful mother Ruth (complete with a bird’s nest headpiece), and Abu Kebe (Choirboy) playing a brilliant, tear-jerking drag parody...

Hold on to your alibis, dear readers. Hot on the heels of the recent national tour of The Mousetrap, another classic from Agatha Christie’s playbook of murder mystery mayhem lands on the stage at Sydney’s Theatre Royal.  *** Time Out Melbourne reviewed And Then There Were None when it played at the Comedy Theatre in February. Read on for that three-star review:   Somewhere off the coast of Devon is a dreary little island with high cliffs, higher tides and no way to escape. It’s Soldier Island: a lovely place to put your feet up, take a dip, meet nine strangers and watch as you all get slowly picked off one-by-one. This is the wickedly thrilling premise of Agatha Christie’s 1939 classic And Then There Were None. A favourite among Christie fans (and Christie herself), it arrives in a production that once again proves that the master of the whodunnit can still thrill us nearly 100 years on. Yet, this revival from director Robyn Nevin – her second of Christie’s following 2023’s The Mousetrap – rests on the laurels of its author too often, offering a passable but ultimately thin restaging that I think might signal the end of the recent resurgence of British classics in our theatres. It’s 1939. Ten people have been invited to Soldier Island under suspicious pretences. They have little in common apart from the skeletons in their closets. For much of the show’s bloated first act, we’re watching this motley crew of potential victims introduce themselves to each other. Christie is...

  So, who else could use a laugh? Good news for us, the Sydney Comedy Festival is gearing up to celebrate its 20th anniversary with its biggest program ever in 2025 (from April 21 to May 18). With brand-new experiences and more than 350 acts from near and far to get around, it’s time for you to prepare yourself for some next-level laughs and silly shenanigans. We’re particularly keen on the brand-new Sydney Comedy Festival Comedy Crawl that will come to life amongst the top-notch bars in the YCK Laneways precinct in the CBD. Led by a host, you can join a group of punters and take a chance on a surprise line-up in surprise venues, moving from bar-to-bar for each comedy set. The Festival’s inaugural ‘One Night Stand’ will also bring Daniel Sloss to town (with some friends) for an Australian exclusive performance at the Sydney Opera House for one night only on April 24, marking the beginning of annual Sydney-only shows. (That’s right, he’s not even going to MICF this year!) Sloss joins a colossal list of big names appearing in the Festival, including Aussie comedy legend Rhys Nicholson (Drag Race Down Under), Guy Montgomery, Jimeoin, Arj Barker, Melanie Bracewell, Nazeem Hussain, Becky Lucas, Joel Creasey, Rhys Darby and Steph Broadbridge – whose brand new Raygun-inspired show Breaking the Musical has already made quite a bit of noise.  You can find also check out our list of 14 top shows to see at Sydney Comedy Festival in 2025 for more inspo.   Another Festival first is...