ARTBAR curated by Nell

Overview

First came the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Art After Hours series. Then the City of Sydney's Late Night Library evenings, and the cavalcade of gourmet all-hours food trucks. Now it seems Sydney has a new witching hour institution.

The MCA's response to the city's craving for grown-up late nights is ARTBAR, a slate of talks, installations, screenings and one-off performances programmed by guest curators on the last Friday of the month. The all-you-can-eat combo of drinks, DJs, live art and harbour views has proved a winning one: the nights continue to sell out. All these civilised small bars and intelligently curated nights are worlds away from the smokey, brawling pubs and tepid 7-Eleven meat pies of the old city's nightlife. Perhaps Sydney really is growing up.

ARTBAR's surprise arrival this month is Nell, whose theme Dead or Alive sits square with the start of the ghostly mini-season of events across Sydney leading up to October 31. Expect live music, bonus boudoirs, dance lessons, t-shirts and the usual Halloween line up of zombies and monsters thrown in for good measure.