Cultural and creative life

Our Sydney Festival highlights

With opera, dance, performance art, music (and giant seagulls!) plan your festival from 5 to 28 January

Seagulls descend on Sydney Festival
Seagulls descend on Sydney Festival

Sydney Festival returns in January with an exciting program of home and global grown events to take over your city.

Inject a diverse array of arts and culture into your summer calendar with incredible music, performance and art installations. With more than 100 events over 25 days, we’re making it easier to plan your festival.

Big name, no blankets
Big name, no blankets

Big name, no blankets

Big name, no blankets is an epic new rock'n'roll theatre show celebrating the legacy and impact of Australian music icons, Warumpi Band, told from the perspective of founding members, the Butcher Brothers. Staged in the Roslyn Packer Theatre, this joyful show is a story of hope - hope for all Australians to come together as one through music.

10 – 14 January Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay More information and tickets

Arka Kinari
Arka Kinari

Arka Kinari

A 70-tonne sailing ship named the 'Arka Kinari' hosts environmental workshops by day and then by night transforms into an exihilerating stage show of live music and cinematic visuals. A feast of psychedelic beats, Javanese post-folk and analogue synths with video, design and dance, all aboard this free event for all.

FREE event 18 – 20 January 4 Circular Quay, Western Promenade The Rocks

More information

White Gold. Image: Sydney Festival
White Gold. Image: Sydney Festival

White Gold

A Cambodian 'circus with purpose' that celebrates healing, joy… and rice. Experience a cultural powerhouse evening of hypnotic dance, mesmerising music, live painting and circus arts that dates back 1,200 years.

9 – 21 January Seymour Centre, Chippendale More information and tickets

Mutiara, Image: Sydney Festival
Mutiara, Image: Sydney Festival

Mutiara

Mutiara draws on diasporic connections to land and sea, South East Asian martial arts and Yawuru and Minangkabau dance forms to highlight the fluid power and resilience of the nomadic Malay. Through the power of choreograhy, Mutiara tells a story between Malay workers and First Peoples of the Kimberley throughout Broome's pearl shell industry's history.

19 – 21 January Seymour Centre, Chippendale More information and tickets

Explore the full Sydney Festival program.

Published 23 December 2022, updated 1 January 2024