What's On In Sydney
What's On, where and when in Sydney
Sydney is filled with a wide range of events to excite and inspire. What’s on in Sydney? Well, no matter what time of year of your visit, there’s a plethora of things to do that will attract the young and young at heart. You’ll never be bored in this fine city.
There’s plenty of fun to be had with outdoor festivals whilst special events abound. Visit Circular Quay, The Rocks and Darling Harbour any day of the week and you’ll discover themed markets, musical performances and free family events. What if the weather takes a turn for the worse? You’ll be able to peruse an abundance of fantastic seasonal and permanent exhibitions in our many museums and art galleries including the Australian Museum, Australian National Maritime Museum, Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art and many more.
Lovers of great theatre are also in their element with many top stage shows featuring at our famous historical venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Capitol Theatre and Theatre Royal. With everything from musicals, comedy and drama productions to opera and ballet, Sydney has all genres covered. Sydney is also becoming one of the culinary capitals of the world. Top quality Sydney restaurants of almost every possible variation await you! Wherever or however you decide to spend your time in Sydney – enjoy! You can always find the latest listings of What’s On in Sydney right here on the Where Magazines site.
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 2012
Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras,
Event Starts: 12-Feb-2012 Ends: 04-Mar-2012
This two week-long arts festival is jam packed with events including the famous Mardi Gras Parade.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators line the streets to watch thousands of parade participants mingle, sparkle and dance their way down Oxford Street in the world’s most flamboyant and friendly celebration of gay pride.
Mardi Gras Parade, Saturday 3 March, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. FREE event.
Then after the parade Kylie Minogue will be performing at Mardigrasland! Kylie is coming back to Mardi Gras as part of her K25: 25 Years of Kylie celebrations. It's been 14 years since Kylie attended Mardi Gras- her long awaited performance will not disappoint.
February |
Previous Month Next Month |
The ever-popular Broadway musical Annie will light up Sydney’s Lyric Theatre from 29 December in an exciting new production produced John Frost. Returning to the role of New York ‘zillionaire’ Daddy Warbucks will be one of Australia’s greatest theatrical talents, Anthony Warlow, fresh from his success in the title role of the World Premiere of Doctor Zhivago. Show business legend Nancye Hayes will play the tyrannical Miss Hannigan who runs the orphanage where Annie begins her journey. This is the third Australian production of Annie that Nancye has been involved with, having played Lily St Regis in the original production and been Resident Director for the second.
Joining Nancye as her scurrilous brother Rooster Hannigan is television and stage favourite Todd McKenney (The Boy From Oz, Dancing With the Stars). Playing Rooster’s “lady friend” Lily St Regis and Warbucks’ secretary Grace Farrell will be two leading ladies of musical theatre, Chloe Dallimore (The Producers) and Julie Goodwin (West Side Story) respectively. Making his musical theatre debut in the role of President (FDR) Roosevelt will be radio veteran Alan Jones.
AQUA: A Journey into the World of Water
Australian National Maritime Museum,
Darling Harbour
Event Starts: 03-Dec-2011 Ends: 26-Feb-2012
AQUA is a multisensory experience for the whole family. Discover the story of water and its importance in our lives as you are taken through a journey of water installations and visual effects. Be immersed in an adventure around the world, in which you are both actor and spectator, surrounded by 360º screen projections. And be inspired by the visual spectacle of AQUA to make a pledge to save water for the planet.
AQUA is a 30-minute timed show with ANMM guides to take you through this unique experience created by ONE DROP, an initiative of Guy Lailberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil®.
The annual ARTEXPRESS exhibition is one of the most popular exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The exhibition brings together an outstanding selection of artworks produced by teenage artists.
Drawn from works submitted for the NSW Higher School Certificate Visual Arts examination, ARTEXPRESS provides insights into students’ creativity and the issues and ideas that are of importance to them. The exhibition presents the independent voice of young people to a large and diverse audience and exemplifies not just their exceptional talent but also the expertise of the Visual Arts teachers who guide them through their studies.
Australian Open of Surfing
Australian Open of Surfing,
Manly
Event Starts: 11-Feb-2012 Ends: 19-Feb-2012
The world’s best surfers, skaters, and Aussie musicians, are set to converge at the birthplace of professional surfing, Manly Beach, for the country’s biggest ever surf, skate and music event, The Australian Open of Surfing, presented by Hurley and Billabong.The first ever nine-day Australian Open of Surfing event will see an exciting mix of the world’s best surf athletes competing in 6-star men’s and women’s ASP-sanctioned surf contests, men’s and women’s pro junior star-events, a world-class skate bowl featuring the world’s best skateboarders and two live concerts on the Channel [V] music stage from some of Australia’s top musicians.
Time for a comedy, a mad, gorgeous, bittersweet comedy about how good it is not to be dead yet.
A group of more or less ordinary Sydneysiders go about their lives: Anna makes toast, Henry dresses for work, Milla catches the train to school, Moses deals drugs, that kind of thing. But hovering above this unholy parade of life is the sobering fact that Milla will die before her 15th birthday.
Rita Kalnejais is a young playwright of uncommon genius. She looks at the humdrum world around us and sees something radically alive. Dogs, Paganini, figs, an eight-year-old Vietnamese violin prodigy, morphine, clear skies and a Latvian immigrant are amongst the magnificent conflagration of ingredients which make up this wonderful, funny play. Written specially for Belvoir, its theme is what Rita calls the violent sweetness of life.
Belvoir and the acclaimed Urban Theatre Projects (UTP) have joined forces for this big-picture show about a city and society redefining itself.
Late one night in the gutted façade of a building primed for redevelopment, a group of security workers, labourers, and a local teenager find themselves haunting the same territory. One by one they rule a line in the sand, and by dawn they’re set for a showdown over who builds the future and who gets to own it. Buried City is an ambitious new work about ever-changing cities like, well, Sydney where waves of immigrants make new lives on old land. Director Alicia Talbot’s investigation of real-time action and filmic panorama continues in this special collaboration between Belvoir and Bankstown-based UTP.
Experience an authentic Asian market, the famous Twilight Parade and colourful Dragon Boat races as part of this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations. Join in the fun and welcome in the Year of the Dragon.
Dragon - Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
Event Starts: 18-Jan-2012 Ends: 06-May-2012
Evolved from a pre-historic totemic animal, the dragon has become a symbol of China to the world. Chinese people everywhere take pride in considering themselves descendants of this mythical creature.
Celebrating 2012 as the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, this exhibition showcases artworks that carry the dragon motif, either from the Gallery’s collection or on loan.
Encompassing bronzes, porcelains, textiles, paintings and calligraphy, it examines the creature’s diverse meanings and manifestations in Chinese art, ritual and politics, while pieces from Japan and Chinese exportware demonstrate how the dragon has been adopted by cultures outside China.
Eugenia Raskopoulos: Footnotes
Art Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney
Event Starts: 23-Feb-2012 Ends: 13-May-2012
Eugenia Raskopoulos’ practice is concerned with language, the body and processes of translation.
The artist has in the past used steam, salt, oil and chalk as a means to smear, score and drip words into temporary formations that emphasise the fluidity of language. In her new video installation footnotes, she turns to materials that relate more directly to ideas of sexuality and gender from lipstick to liquids of more ambiguous origins.
Using her own limbs as instruments or surfaces for inscription, Raskopoulos performs a series of actions that accumulate letters into words, written in English and Greek. Through these gestures, she draws attention to translation as an awkward exchange that is shaped by the potential for loss or contamination of meaning.
You will laugh out loud with this musical comedy about four parents whose only common ground is the football field where their kids play Every Single Saturday.This production is being staged at the Glen Street Theatre on Sydney’s lower north shore at Belrose.The story revolves around Neil, an aloof orchestra conductor, unaccustomed to the pressures of being a father to his estranged son; Sandy, a hard-driven working class fitness freak trying to avoid her struggles at home; Liz, a well-educated North Shore mum trying to rebuild her life as a single parent and the team’s coach, Carlo, an Italian soccer dad reliving his days as a former sports hero. You will follow their sideline dramas as the junior team goes nowhere fast until Neil’s son, the talented Becks, arrives.
Watch as Centennial Park is transformed into the ultimate outdoor cinema experience, showcasing an extensive
program of classic, cult and new release films for Ford Fiesta Moonlight Cinema.
This year’s schedule is brimming with films from every possible genre for all to enjoy.
On those balmy nights when a warm breeze drifts across Centennial Park, the best way to soak up the last rays of sunshine is to kick back with good friends
and tuck into a picnic before getting up close and personal with the stars under the stars. There is on-site catering is on hand with a tempting selection of food, wine, beer and other beverages.
Harry Potter: The Exhibition offers fans a chance to step inside Harry Potter’s world and relive first-hand his amazing quests. From Harry’s famous wand, his Quidditch™ broomsticks, glasses and school uniform to Professor Dumbledore’s wand and robes, visitors to Harry Potter: The Exhibition will be overwhelmed by the size and detail of this magnificent showcase.
Hundreds of original props, artefacts and costumes appearing throughout the Harry Potter films will be displayed in elaborate settings inspired by locations from Hogwarts™ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the Gryffindor™ common room, Hagrid’s hut, the Great Hall and so much more.
For 18 months theatre-maker Roslyn Oades and her trusty tape recorder followed a determined, young boxer from Bankstown through his preparations for a world-title fight. I’m Your Man is the story of who she and her tape recorder met along the way: past legends, up-and-comers and failed contenders whose lives have been irreversibly changed by the fight game.
This Sydney Festival, Downstairs Belvoir turns boxing gym: place of dreams, of glory, of a better life, where everyone wants to be special and only one thing is certain that no matter how high you fly you will eventually lose. I’m Your Man is no ordinary slice-of-life. The actors wear earpieces and take their lines directly from the ringsides, gyms and dressing rooms of Oades’ recordings. This is fuelled-up, high-stakes, real-deal theatre.
I’m Your Man is the third of a trilogy by Oades about acts of bravery and the psychology of respect. Behind the thrilling, brutal sport lies a compelling tale of courage and its cost.
Prepare to be amazed, amused, appalled, aroused, shocked, stirred and shaken, as you enter the sexy, funny and dangerous world of LA SOIRÉE! An ever-changing collective of the world’s greatest exponents of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary vaudeville, LA SOIRÉE creates a parallel universe of pure entertainment where undeniable skill meets unstoppable laughter. You’ll see the Studio at Sydney Opera House transformed into a stunning salon to showcase these extraordinary extroverts as they display their peculiar talents in the round, up-close and intimate.
Love Lace is a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary lace works by artists and designers from around the world that showcases lace design in ways never before seen or ever imagined.
Around 130 lace works by 134 artists from 20 countries feature in Love Lace, which will open for Sydney Design 2011.The exhibition is drawn from finalists of the Powerhouse Museum’s third International Lace Award that attracted an outstanding field of 700 entries globally.
The exhibition, Love Lace, will feature two and three dimensional and virtual works from installations, screens and sculptures; textiles, wall hangings and lighting; to fashion, fashion accessories and jewellery.
A disused farm truck revived by its impressive metal lace body, a sculpture of a female uterus made from delicately knitted human hair, a replica Ford motor engine created from thin crocheted steel, and a galvanised steel wire fence with its spectacular bobbin lace butterfly design, are among some of the extraordinary and provocative works that are expected to surprise and delight visitors!