From world-class performances to community-based celebrations, events across Sydney and New South Wales resonate on both a global and intimately local scale. Here’s a curated guide to the major festivals, blockbuster exhibitions, performances and sporting events you’ll want to plan your next visit around.

Music, Festivals and Fashion

Tamworth Country Music Festival

The New England city of Tamworth resounds with the twang of steel guitars and soulful voices when the Toyota Tamworth Country Music Festival returns this January. The largest country music festival in the southern hemisphere hosts hundreds of ungated free shows and events for everyone to enjoy, so it’s ideal as a last-minute school-holiday getaway. There’s also a slew of ticketed performances from stars like Suzi Quatro and Kasey Chambers. A welcoming, family-friendly event, the festival runs from 17–26 January 2025. 

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

The iconic Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras descends on the city from 14 February to 2 March 2025 with the theme ‘Free to be’. The annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ pride, culture and activism is a two-week whirlwind of dance parties, inclusive community events and a dizzying line-up of music and theatre performances. The festival culminates with Darlinghurst’s Oxford Street erupting in a flurry of glitter for the spectacular Mardi Gras Parade on 1 March, followed by the exuberant Mardi Gras Party.

Great Southern Nights 

From Gamilaraay pop queen Thelma Plum playing the Silverton Hotel outside of Broken Hill to the operatic Kate Miller-Heidke performing at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, musicians head to all corners of NSW for this year’s edition of Great Southern Nights. Enjoy some of the 300-plus gigs put on across the state from 21 March to 6 April 2025, at venues in Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast, Byron Bay, the Central West, Broken Hill, Tamworth, Wollongong and Bathurst.

Sydney Comedy Festival

The largest comedy event in NSW, the Sydney Comedy Festival runs from 21 April to 18 May 2025. The 20th-anniversary edition of the festival kicks off with Sydney Comedy Festival Gala performances at venues across Sydney, from the Concourse in Chatswood to the Enmore Theatre and the Sydney Opera House. This year’s laugh-fest spreads its wings to feature shows in Bondi, Penrith and Sutherland in Sydney’s south.

Narooma Oyster Festival

Foodie alert: the Narooma Oyster Festival takes over the shores of Narooma’s Wagonga Inlet from 2–4 May 2025. This year’s event kicks off with an evening feasting on oysters and savouring a fire-pit twilight dinner on Narooma’s foreshore. The main event on Saturday brings together more than 70 producers and market stalls and around two dozen brewers, distillers and wine makers for an epicurean idyll, while local oyster farmers vie for the prize in Australia’s Biggest Oyster Competition and show off their skills in the Australian Oyster Shucking Championships. 

Australian Fashion Week

A new-look Australian Fashion Week returns to Carriageworks in Sydney’s Eveleigh from 12–16 May 2025. Following previous owner/operator IMG’s departure in 2024, the most influential fashion event in the Asia-Pacific is now under the leadership of the not-for-profit Australian Fashion Council. The industry-only event helps support the next generation of designers defining the future of Australian fashion – browse the boutiques lining Sydney’s fashionable shopping strips to see how bright that future will be.

Sydney Writers’ Festival 

A week-long celebration of the art of writing – and the joys of reading and contemplating the ideas springing off the pages of books – the Sydney Writers’ Festival runs from 19–25 May 2025. The festival program will be released in March: expect an array of thought-provoking events across the city as well as at the festival’s base at Carriageworks, with around a third of festival events offered free of charge. 

Vivid Sydney

The southern hemisphere’s leading multi-arts festival, Vivid Sydney transforms Sydney into a hotbed of creativity from 23 May to 14 June 2025. Now in its 15th year, Australia’s largest festival lights up city landmarks like the Sydney Opera House with awe-inspiring art installations and 3D light projections, entertains with live music and performances, mediates discussions about big issues, and delights the palate with a comprehensive culinary offering. The full Vivid Sydney program will be unveiled in mid-March.

Sydney Film Festival

Now in its 72nd year, the Sydney Film Festival returns from 4–15 June 2025. Expect an exciting array of entertaining and challenging movies, including works by emerging talent and established filmmakers from diverse cultural backgrounds. The festival’s main base will once again be the palatial State Theatre, with additional screenings at cinemas across the city centre, Newtown, Cremorne, Randwick and beyond. 

Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash

Hire a campervan and set up camp on the red-dirt plains of an outback station for the unique Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash music festival from 21–23 August 2025. The all-ages, family-friendly festival outside of Broken Hill features headline acts Missy Higgins and Hoodoo Gurus, while pub-rock stalwarts The Angels, Rose Tattoo, Dragon and Mi Sex will belt out Aussie rock anthems under vast open skies.

Art exhibitions

Cerith Wyn Evans 

Step into a dreamlike realm at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s winter exhibition, which presents significant works by Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans. Cerith Wyn Evans, which runs from 6 June to 19 October 2025, features some of the artist’s major works, most of which have never been seen before in Australia. Stroll through a metaphorical Japanese garden as you take in astonishing works like the Neon Forms (After Noh) series of large-scale “drawings in space” using neon light, which were inspired by the choreography of Japan’s Noh theatre.

Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has collaborated with the Northern Territory’s Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Indigenous art centre to present the extraordinary Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala from 21 June to 6 October 2025. Showcasing and contextualising the exceptional artists of the northeast Arnhem Land community of Yirrkala, this far-reaching exhibition features bark paintings, sculptures, drawings on paper, prints and time-based artworks created from the 1940s to the present day.

Data Dreams: Being Human in the Age of AI 

With artificial intelligence becoming ever more powerful, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia presents a timely examination of this technology in Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI, from 21 November 2025 to 26 April 2026. From how AI is shaping our perception of reality to interrogating what it means for computers to simulate human thinking, Data Dreams gathers works by leading artists into a fascinating show. See Data Dreams with the Sydney International Art Series Art Pass, which also covers entry to two selected blockbuster exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Ron Mueck 

In a Sydney exclusive, Ron Mueck presents the popular Australian artist’s work in his first major solo exhibition in this country in more than a decade at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, from 6 December 2025 to 12 April 2026. The artist’s disquieting, hyperrealist sculptures have been drawn from across the globe, most of which have never before been seen in Australia. Mueck has also created a new immersive work for the show, which is part of the Sydney International Art Series 2025–26.

Musicals

Hadestown

American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s acclaimed musical Hadestown makes its Australian premiere at Theatre Royal Sydney in Martin Place from 10 February to 19 April 2025. A smash hit on both London’s West End and New York’s Broadway, Hadestown retells the ancient Greek myth of lovers Orpheus and Eurydice as they journey through an industrial-gothic underworld ruled by King Hades and his wife Persephone.

MJ the Musical 

A peek behind the scenes at the creative process of one of the most influential entertainers the world has ever seen, MJ the Musical comes to the Sydney Lyric Theatre in Pyrmont from 26 February to 25 May 2025. Set during rehearsals for Michael Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour in 1992, the musical features many of the King of Pop’s greatest hits and offers insights into the motivations of this singular figure. 

Guys and Dolls

Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour presents a new production of the iconic musical Guys & Dolls from 21 March to 20 April 2025. Homegrown recording artist Cody Simpson stars as gambler Sky Masterson in this absorbing tale of showgirls and gangsters in 1950s Manhattan, memorably staged on the Royal Botanic Garden foreshore with the Sydney Opera House and the city skyline as a glittering backdrop. 

The Book of Mormon 

The critically acclaimed and much-awarded The Book of Mormon comes to the Capitol Theatre from 15 July to 26 October 2025. This irreverent musical from the creators of South Park and multiple EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) award-winner Robert Lopez tells the comical story of a pair of Mormon missionaries as they try to do good deeds in a small village in Uganda.

Back to the Future The Musical 

Party like it’s 1985 when you join time traveller Marty McFly in his adventures across the decades in Back to the Future The Musical, at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from October 2025. The musical adaptation follows the plot of the hit 1980s movie, and features original show tunes alongside the rock staples showcased in the original film, including The Power of Love and Johnny B. Goode. 

Sporting Events

KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix 

Pleasure craft make way for high-tech F50 catamarans slicing through the waters of Sydney Harbour at more than 95km/h when the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix Sydney returns from 8–9 February 2025. The fastest yacht race in the world features two days of thrilling high-speed sailing: catch the action from the race stadium on Shark Island, from the shoreline, or on the water on one of the official spectator boats. There’s also a Dockside event with behind-the-scenes access to the SailGP Tech Site on Glebe Island on Friday 7 February.

2025 Sydney 500

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship season kicks off with a collective roar of engines at the 2025 Sydney 500 at Sydney Motorsport Park in Western Sydney’s Eastern Creek from 21–23 February. Make the most of the only event on the Supercars calendar to feature night-time racing with a premium experience at the Supercars Paddock Club, located in a prime spot on pit lane above the team garages. 

2025 Australian Women’s Classic

Walk the fairways with some of the world’s best professional and amateur female golfers at the 2025 Australian Women’s Classic from 13–16 March. The free four-day Ladies European Tour and Women’s Australian PGA tournament event takes place on the 27-hole championship course at the Coffs Harbour Golf Club, nestled between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean in Coffs Harbour on the NSW North Coast.

Newcastle Surfest 

The southern hemisphere’s largest surfing festival, Newcastle’s months-long Surfest culminates with the Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest Challenger Series at Merewether Beach from 2–8 June 2025. The first event in the 2025 World Surf League Challenger Series, the competition kicks off with wildcard trials on 1 June, where emerging riders vie for a place in the big show.

British and Irish Lions tour matches

The British and Irish Lions return to Australia in 2025 for the first time in 12 years, with matches in Sydney against the NSW Waratahs and the Wallabies. Combining the best rugby players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, the Lions will be ferocious opponents when they play the NSW Waratahs at Allianz Stadium on 5 July, before returning for the final Test match against the Wallabies at Accor Stadium on 2 August. 

Sydney Marathon

Fresh from making history as the first Australian running event to gain World Major Marathon status (alongside Tokyo, London, New York, Chicago, Boston and Berlin), the TCS Sydney Marathon returns on 31 August 2025. One of the world’s most spectacular running courses, the marathon starts in North Sydney and will lead an expected 35,000 runners across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, through the city centre and the Royal Botanic Garden before finishing at the Sydney Opera House forecourt. 

Month to month: Sydney and NSW's 2025 events at a glance.

Toyota Tamworth Country Music Festival – 17–26 January 2025 

KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix Sydney – 8–9 February 2025

Hadestown – 10 February to 19 April 2025

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras – 14 February to 2 March 2025 

2025 Sydney 500 – 21–23 February  2025

MJ the Musical – 26 February to 25 May 2025

2025 Australian Women’s Classic – 13–16 March 2025

Great Southern Nights –  21 March to 6 April 2025

Guys & Dolls – 21 March to 20 April 2025

Sydney Comedy Festival – 21 April to 18 May 2025

Narooma Oyster Festival – 2–4 May 2025

Australian Fashion Week – 12–16 May 2025

Sydney Writers’ Festival – 19–25 May 2025

Vivid Sydney – 23 May to 14 June 2025

Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest Challenger Series – 2–8 June 2025

Sydney Film Festival – 4–15 June 2025

Cerith Wyn Evans –  6 June to 19 October 2025

Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala – 21 June to 6 October 2025

British and Irish Lions vs NSW Waratahs – 5 July 2025

The Book of Mormon – 15 July to 26 October 2025

British and Irish Lions vs the Wallabies – 2 August 2025

Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash – 21–23 August 2025

TCS Sydney Marathon – 31 August 2025

Back to the Future The Musical – from October 2025

Data Dreams: Contemporary Art in the Age of AI –  21 November 2025 to 26 April 2026

Ron Mueck – 6 December 2025 to 12 April 2026