The Rocks' free live jazz sessions have become so popular they're back for an extended season. Get down to The Rocks Square any Thursday night between April 3 and September 25, and you'll be kicking back to the sounds of some of Sydney's best jazz acts — while sipping on gin cocktails. Launching the season on April 3 is trumpeter and recent Sydney Conservatorium graduate Bernice Tesara and her trio. Then, on April 10, catch guitarist Aaron Flower — winner of the 2007 National Jazz Award — alongside vocalist Kate Wadey. They'll be dueting on a range of jazz standards, plus songs from their upcoming album. Hickson House Distillery will be onsite serving creative gin-based cocktails, made from spirits brewed onsite at its stunning headquarters just up the road. Try a Hickson House Classic Dry, made with classic London tonic and garnished with lemon, olive and marjoram, or an Australian Dry, made features pink citrus tonic, finger lime, pink grapefruit and fresh basil. Rain or shine, you can take a seat from 6pm every week, with the first set starting at 6.30pm and the second at 7.30pm. If it does happen to be a wet evening, you'll find everyone at 6-8 Atherden Street, a short stroll from The Rocks Square. Images: Anna Kucera
Gone are the days when a handful of 20 cent coins was like a wad of fifties, when you would buy finger buns — with their iconic pink icing and coconut shavings — with the silver scraped from the bottom of your bag. The tuck shop might've deserved a visit from the Health Inspector, but the buns were pink, they were sugary, they were cheap; they were everything we once wanted in food. But apparently those days aren't totally gone — just the price point and dubious hygiene. Adriano Zumbo is transforming his Rozelle and Waverley patisseries into 'Fluffy's Aussie Bakery' as a creative homage to Australia Day. For ten days Zumbo's will be the classic Aussie bakery with kitsch decor, vintage chalkboard art and baked goods. Among the treats on offer from tomorrow until January 26 are finger buns, neenish tarts, cream buns and lamingtons. All that's missing is a milkshake and sausage roll. The pop-up bakeries can be found at 114 Terry Street, Rozelle and 24 Arden Street, Waverley, somewhere round Memory Lane.
For over 50 years the Dutch company Nederlands Dans Theater has nimbly stretched the limbs of contemporary dance, and yet its appearances in Sydney are few and far between. This week is a rare exception, with four works from the company's repertoire to be viewed at the Sydney Opera House. While no longer the coolest kid on the barre, Jiŕí Kylián still stands as a tremendous figure in the field of contemporary dance choreography. Originally trained in ballet, Kylián took the precision and physical discipline of the form and contorted it with expressions of wit and experimentation to create his own style, demonstrated here by his two pieces Sweet Dreams and Sarabande. Also on show are two newer works, SH-Boom and Shoot the Moon (it is staggering how many of NDT's titles begin with an S). Choreographed by NDT's current artistic director, Paul Lightfoot, and his long-term collaborator Sol Leon, these works carry on in the vein of humour found in Kylián's; however, they have morphed into their own dramas, featuring almost love scenes and half-formed rooms. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xq2EgAm6vTo
There's only one thing better than a long, lazy brunch with free-flowing cocktails. And that's a brunch with free-flowing cocktails, plus spectacular Sydney Harbour views. The Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney's Altitude Restaurant now doing weekend brunch, with an extended, three-hour session on Sundays, so you can take your brunch game to the next level — literally. Located on the hotel's 36th floor, Altitude's brunch takes place every Saturday and Sunday. Book yourself a table and settle in for hours of endless food and drink. On Saturdays, you can opt for a two-hour sitting, from either 11am–1pm or 1.30–30pm. On Sundays, the brunch will run from 11.30am–2.30pm. Priced at $95 per person, the brunch includes food and as many bellinis and mimosas as you like. Or, if you'd prefer Veuve Clicquot, you can upgrade. In between sips, head to the buffet for mountains of fresh seafood, including Sydney Rock oysters and poached prawns, plus meats like mortadella, Berkshire ham and prosciutto. There's also a generous selection of breads, pastries, handcrafted local cheeses and honeycomb. On top of all that, you get an a la carte dish, too. Choose from smoked salmon with orange, chat potatoes and labneh or pancake soufflés with banana, cocoa, almond and ice cream. Come dessert time, you'll be heading back to the buffet for Anna's Sweet Garden, named after the hotel's executive pastry chef (and former guest judge on Masterchef Australia) Anna Polyviou. Here, you'll find a sugary heaven of lollipops, macarons, chocolates, banana bread, caramel slice and seasonal fruits. Altitude's brunch happens twice on Saturdays, from 11am–1pm and 1.30–3.30pm. On Sundays, you can indulge for three glorious hours, from 11.30am–2.30pm. To see the full menu and make a booking, head this way.
UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14 — Avi's Kantini is open for takeaway throughout lockdown. Check out the menu here. Nestled inside The Bank alongside craft beer bar Uncle Hops, the Middle Eastern-inspired menu can be ordered anywhere in the three storey venue. Highlights include an oozy baked saganaki with honey, pistachio and rose, as well as housemade dips ($12), stuffed pides served with pickles and onion salads ($19-21) and meze plates. "Newtown has always been a popular spot for Middle Eastern and Turkish food," CEO of Solotel Group Elliot Solomon said in a statement. "With Avi's Kantini, we wanted to build on that legacy and love with a contemporary, psychedelic twist." Cocktails are curated by Ed Loveday (ex-Bar Brosé and ex-ACME), featuring ingredients like arak (an unsweetened distilled spirit), sumac, pomegranate, saffron and bergamot (a type of citrus). Taste through a refreshing Karpuz (meaning 'melon' in Turkish) with Espolon Blanco tequila, watermelon, rosewater and lime or try Avi's take on an espresso martini with spiced rum, coffee, date and black walnut. If you want to spend less time ordering, and more time dancing, we wouldn't blame you. The $45 banquet menu is a steal with plant-based and carnivorous options including chickpea falafels, lamb shish and chicken wings in a sticky fig glaze. The revamped courtyard champions custom art murals by Wollongong-based artist El Oso Negro, while 12-seater cushioned booths, seating nooks and plenty of greenery gives guests heaps of options when it comes to space.
It's a familiar problem: your lounge room corner or kitchen windowsill is screaming for a bit of greenery, but finding time to shop for a fiddle leaf fig or a monstera is easier said than done. That's where plant delivery services come in, whether you're after something new each month or a one-off parcel of nature's goodness. And, in the latter camp, Australia has a new site ready to send a baby rubber plant, bird of paradise or peace lily to your door. That'd be The Plant People, a Brisbane-based nursery that takes care of the whole process, including seeding, growing, potting and delivery. At the company's base in Burpengary, green babies are nurtured by propagators and horticulturalists, then sent to eager customers — not only in Brissy or on the Gold and Sunshine coasts, but throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT and South Australia. Greenery-wise, The Plant People specialises in low-maintenance plants that can be grown indoors and arrive room-ready, with its range spanning familiar names and more creative types. You can nab a birds nest fern, Swiss cheese plant or string of pearls, or perhaps a philodendron, string of dolphins, Chinese money plant or manda succulent. The collection will continue to grow, following the latest trends and adding new varieties. The Plant People also sells pots, which are made by an artisan in Vietnam, as well as handy accessories such as garden scissors and moisture meters. Prices range from $14.95–$395 — and, no matter where you're getting your plant delivered to in its custom-designed box, shipping is free. The Plant People delivers to Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT and South Australia. For further details, visit the company's website.
If you're looking for old-world hospitality and warm Italian service, look no further than Cucina Porto at The Star. Here, it's less about seasonal trends and glamour — the team is more focused on serving up hearty Italian fare for the heart and soul, within a sleek and charming setting. The menu is inspired by Executive Chef Martino Pulito's childhood in Puglia, a small southern region of Italy known for its hilly farmland and expansive coastline. It also borrows from other Italian regions including Parma, Bolgna and Rome. Start with the foolproof stone-baked bread paired with a 22-month aged Parama prosciutto. A burrata served on a bed of pistachio pesto and 'ndjua crumbs, as well as a Puglia-style white anchovy dish, rounds out the starter favourites. Moving onto the pasta selection, cavatelli is paired with silky slow-cooked cuttlefish, gremolata and ink rice crackers; while gnochetti with seasonal mushrooms, parmesan and crispy cavolo nero is ideal for veggie-loving plus ones. The Star has had a small fleet of new venues join since the beginning of the year, including Mashi No Mashi hailing from Tokyo's WAGYUMAFIA team and the recently opened experiential venue ELE.
With so much to see, do and eat around Singapore, you might be feeling a little lost on how to best navigate the city. While Singapore's streets are renowned for being spotless, the humidity sometimes makes it difficult to wander long distances on foot. Get around by hopping on the efficient — and air-conditioned — Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system instead, which runs from Changi Airport in the east to Tuas Link in the west and through major stops such as Marina Bay, HarbourFront, Chinatown and Little India. The trains operate every 2–8 minutes from 5.30am–12.30am each day and are often conveniently connected to large shopping malls, hawker centres or other attractions through covered passageways. Simply use your existing contactless card or Apple Pay to tap on, or purchase a Singapore Tourist Pass (if you're staying for less than 3-5 days) or EZ-Link Card (if you're staying for longer). With the help of Singapore Tourism, we're spotlighting five MRT stops worth hopping off for along your commute, and what to do near each station. [caption id="attachment_981017" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Afur Wong[/caption] Maxwell Located in the heart of Chinatown, Maxwell is a stop along the Thomson–East Coast line. Jump off here to explore Chinatown and some of the city's top hawker centres as you're travelling from Gardens by the Bay towards Orchard Road. You'll find the famed Maxwell Food Centre right next to the station, which boasts over 100 stalls, including the renowned Tian Tian Chicken Rice. If you're still feeling peckish, the Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, which is the largest hawker centre in Singapore with 260-plus stalls, and the renovated Lau Pa Sat are both a short walk away. After lunch, take a stroll through historic Chinatown with a self-guided walking tour to see sights such as the Sri Mariamman Temple, Masjid Jamae mosque and Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, with breaks for sweet treats and coffee in between. Marine Parade Further along the Thomson–East Coast line is Marine Parade, where you can walk or cycle through East Coast Park, refuel at Marine Parade Central Market and Food Centre, shop at Parkway Parade, and discover Peranakan culture at Katong-Joo Chiat. East Coast Park offers a range of activities for the whole family, from walking and cycling trails to windsurfing, paddleboarding and skateboarding, as well as a plethora of dining options. Katong-Joo Chiat dates back to the early 19th century and was a hub for Eurasian and Peranakan communities. Step back in time and learn about the neighbourhood's rich history at The Intan (a home-turned-museum), Eurasian Heritage Gallery and Katong Antique House, before snapping some photos at the iconic pastel-hued shophouses along Koon Seng Road. Finish up your day of discovery with Peranakan cuisine at Kim Choo Kueh Chang, 328 Katong Laksa or Old Bibik's Peranakan Kitchen. Bayfront You can't go to Singapore without visiting the iconic Marina Bay area. Stop at Bayfront on the Circle or Downtown lines to explore the whole precinct. At Marina Bay Sands, you can sip a sky-high drink at CÉ LA VI, enjoy a free light and water show at the Event Plaza and dance the night away at MARQUEE nightclub. For a more laidback night, take an evening stroll around Marina Bay to snap a photo at the Here is SG sculpture and explore Merlion Park, which is adjacent to the buzzing Fullerton precinct. While you're in the area, make sure to check out other unmissable attractions, such as the sprawling Gardens by the Bay and innovative ArtScience Museum. [caption id="attachment_980376" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Danny Santos[/caption] Little India From ornate temples to vibrant street art and plentiful shopping and food options, Little India is an energetic cultural hub that's worth a stop on the North East or Downtown lines. Follow the self-guided map and visit landmarks such as the Indian Heritage Centre, Tan Teng Niah House and Sri Veerakaliamman Temple. Along the way, you'll be able to browse for Indian homewares, ornaments, jewellery and textiles. If you're really ready to shop, head to Mustafa Centre, which is open 24/7 and sells everything from home appliances and electronics to camping goods, perfume, vintage collectibles and snacks across six levels. Once you've worked up an appetite, sample some local fare at Tekka Centre, which is Singapore's largest indoor wet market and a hawker centre. Other notable eateries in the area are Podi and Poriyal for cocktails and contemporary takes; The Banana Leaf Apolo, which has been serving North and South Indian cuisine since 1974; and Bismillah Biryani, which has been awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand for eight years straight. [caption id="attachment_980381" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Paris Chia[/caption] HarbourFront If you continue on the North East or Circle lines until the final stop, you'll end up at HarbourFront. Alight here for outdoor expeditions to Sentosa or Mount Faber Park, with a break for bites at Seah Im Food Centre. Mount Faber Park is one of the oldest parks in the city and looks out across the southern coast of Singapore. With well-paved pathways, you can easily hike or cycle up to the highest peak at Faber Point. Other sites in the park include a rainbow-coloured stairway, two restaurants, cable car rides to Sentosa, a mini Merlion and even a famous public bathroom with views across the harbour. If heights aren't your thing and you'd rather not take a cable car to reach Sentosa, not to worry — you can also reach the island via car, bus, bike, monorail, or even on foot. You're in for an action-packed day once you're there, with attractions ranging from beaches and an aquarium to a waterpark, go-kart track, adventure park, Universal Studios Singapore, WWII fort and role-playing city for kids. Book your Singapore holiday now with Flight Centre. Top image: Paris Chia Photography. All images courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board.
A bootery, a boarding house and an opium den. These are just a few of the past lives of 77–79 George Street, but The Doss House is the latest moniker for this heritage-listed building — and this time round, it'll focus on whisky. And we mean a lot of whisky — 150 bottles, to be exact. This enormous whisky collection is showcased in American oak cabinets throughout the venue and spans international regions from Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Japan and the States. Rare whiskies on offer include 30-year-old Hibiki and Glenglassaugh, as well Nikka 'Taketsuru' Fortune 80 and a GlenDronach bottle from 1994. Whisky flights will be introduced in the coming months so you can maximise your breadth of tastes. If you're not one to drink whisky neat, The Doss House has also got all the classic cocktails on offer, along with signatures like The Dusky Scotchman (Laphroaig 10-year, Branca Menta, honey and saline), a blackberry and lemon myrtle fizz (blackberry-infused Stolichnaya, lemon myrtle, fresh lemon and Cynar) and My Name Is Earl (earl grey-infused gin, peach aperitif, orange marmalade, fresh lemon and basil). For whisky-induced snacking, the kitchen is putting together share platters featuring a selection of pickles, chutney, cheese and meat, with the Aussie-themed platter specifically including emu prosciutto and kangaroo salami paired with native cheeses. Guinness and oyster pairings are on the horizon, too. The basement bar boasts five distinct spaces that each pay homage to a past tenant. The exposed sandstone walls and renewed original fireplaces are paired with brass fittings, antique mirrors, luxurious orange velvet banquettes and an antique chesterfield sofa. The custom-made leather armchairs in one room are offset by high bar stools in another, plus it's got a revitalised outdoor courtyard to boot. The soft lighting completes the vibe, giving off the dark and cosy feel of an old Irish pub. Which makes sense, considering the two owners, Colm O'Neill and Eoin Daniels (who's the founder of Top Knot Carpentry and Joinery), are Irish expats and childhood mates. Daniels boasts quite the Sydney resume — his carpentry business has fitted iconic venue interiors at Opera Bar, The Old Clare Hotel, The Clock Hotel and The Golden Sheaf. The duo is joined by local heavy hitters, including bar manager Alex O'Brien (Bar No. 5, Archie Rose) and Bobby Carey (Big Poppa's, Shady Pines, Riley Street Garage), who consulted on the menus. Images: Alana Dimou Appears in: Sydney's Best Underground Bars for 2023
It seems like Merivale have gone a little loco lately. First the insanity of Freaky Tiki, now this: a downtrodden Surry Hills pub transformed into a Mexican cantina. El Loco is a temporary solution to the reinvention of this venue, a prequel to a fully blown Mexican restaurant. But we think the wild mishmash of this whirlwind transition is the best part about it. Gone is the band room and, while we deeply regret the loss of another live music venue in Surry Hills, it's looking good. The previously sound-proofed walls have been pulled apart and repainted with brightly coloured cacti and skulls in Mexican hats. Lights hang from exposed beams and the busy kitchen stands open for observation. While there's a few options on the menu, this place is all about the soft tacos (all $5). Don't expect an entirely traditional offering, however. While this place is conceptually Mexican, the food's strength is its subtle Asian twist. I loved the Carne Asada, with lemongrass beef and salsa verde, and the Queso de Soya, chilli marinated tofu with pico de gallo. The front room remains more recognisable as a pub-style bar, with classic tap beers, wine and spirits still on offer. The new addition here is the tequilas, with over twenty varieties to pick and choose from. The cocktail menu is a little pricier than the food, with all options at $13.50, but the margaritas are justifiably delicious. With opening hours that stretch to 3am on weekends, this is a great late night option for a drink and a bite. Remember that it's only temporary though, so make the most of these tacos and get in quick.
French dining is experiencing a renaissance in Sydney with a spate of new bistros — like Hubert, Bistro Rex, LoLuk and the soon-to-open Eté and Frenchies — slowly but surely taking over. The latest is District Brasserie, a new fine dining venue committed to bringing affordable luxury to the masses. All we can say is, let the revolution begin. Located on the lower ground floor of the Chifley Tower, the new 200-seater venue consists of an all-day bakery serving tartines, croissants and Single O coffees as well as a restaurant designed for long business lunches and romantic wining and dining. The venue is luxurious, and was designed by Paul Kelly (the hospitality designer, not musician). Expensive details extend all the way from the mid-century leather furniture, striking green marble bar and aged brass furnishings, to the Riedel glassware and fine linen napkins. If it weren't for the shopping centre escalator outside you could be in one of Paris' finest. However, perhaps what's most surprising is that when you open your schmancy leather-bound menu, the prices seem quite reasonable (gasp!) not at all the eye-watering costs you had planned to pass on to your finance department or significant other. And perhaps even more surprisingly, the portion sizes are quite generous — not the petite, miniscule, itsy-bitsy, quail egg on a crouton-sized dish that we have come to expect from the French. Take for instance the charcuterie ($32) which is served as a platter of house-cured salami, peppered duck prosciutto, burrata, pickled vegetables and charred bread — it could easily satisfy a ménage à trois. While we're similarly impressed with the diameter of the steak tartare ($25), for us, the flavour fails to live up to its esteemed reputation. The avant-garde, modern take, is spicy — like Mexican spicy — and the top layer of black smoked onion crumble renders the classic zesty dish completely unrecognisable. If you do give it a go, skip the tapioca crackers provided (which only serve to confuse us further) and load it up on the naturally-fermented organic sourdough, which comes complimentary from District's on-site bakery. It's some seriously good bread. For us, the pièce de résistance is the steak frites ($37), which promises to bring a tear of pride to a carnivorous French person's eye. The lean Jack Creek's sirloin is flamed in a Josper charcoal oven, ours cooked just how we asked, and served with a whipped béarnaise sauce and a side of seasoned fries and watercress. The 120-strong wine list is also a highlight. Compiled by sommelier Benjamin Moechtar, the selection includes plenty of interesting drops from Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, with gorgeous boutique Greek wines scattered here and there as a treat. While individual dishes are reasonably priced, after you end up over-ordering — and then polishing off several bottles of fine French Burgundy — it probably won't feel like a cheap night for long. We just hope you reach that level of contentment (and mild drunkenness) in which you don't mind.
We're always drawn in to the works at White Rabbit, and this exhibition is no exception. Artists in Hot Blood present works looking at the irreverent and the sublime, the public and the private, on subjects stretching from gaming to sperm donors, video avatar gods to solitude, neuroscience to desire. Hot Blood shows us we are alive, and viscerally so — in all the realities we exist in: physical, digital, spiritual, and psychological. LU YANG 陆扬: ELECTROMAGNETIC BRAINOLOGY (2017) Lu Yang's piece beckons as you enter the gallery. Lu explores the intersection between science and the spiritual in a purely digital, pop-culture video collage. A five-channel video plays in a stickered, custom-built structure that reflects the churches in which Lu usually presents her work in China. Referencing the Japanese otaku subculture, Lu used free online programs to create God-like avatars that she then cuts into a world of hyper-saturated colour and video-game soundtracks. Deities of each of the five elements, or wu xing (五行) — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — deliver sermons on neuroscience and medical technology. As phrases "the amygdala can destroy", "water god", "autonomic nervous system" and "self-transformative power" drift in and out of your thoughts, Lu's turbo-charged animated characters perform, their at-times jagged outlines a hint that this mesmerising digital world is something more than seamless pop-culture to be consumed without question. ZHU LIYE 朱利页: LINE-UP (2007) For Line-Up, Beijing artist Zhu Liye wanted to find ordinary people from different professions and walks of life to photograph. This proved difficult, so instead she used life models accustomed to sitting for students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The work is a play between soft and hard, drawing attention to the male body as an object rather than the ubiquitous female nude. The photograph's format, cropped into a circle, might also reference the round pictures, known as tondi, that became popular during the Renaissance. Tondi allowed artists to emphasise the centre of the image, and often featured religious or decorative content. Zhu brought in elements of performance art to create the light-hearted energy she desired for this piece. While shooting the work, we're told she playfully ran around the set in bell-bottom jeans and a bra, a mental-image-counterpoint to the comically serious faces of the men standing to attention in her photograph. Zhu says the men very quickly lost their initial shyness and 'performed' as directed. HUANG HUA-CHEN 黃華真: THE FAMILY ALBUM—SO SEE YOU LATER (2009–12) Quiet oil paintings at first glance, on closer inspection these works hold a deep sadness. Made over three years, Huang Hua-Chen's paintings draw on memories of the father who abandoned her as a small child. His presence in each work is sometimes seen, sometimes felt, and is summarised by a central figure in an oval-shaped black frame, a presentation used traditionally in China for ancestral portraits to represent someone who has died. Huang says a deceased father is one who didn't leave. The unsettling quality and pared-back palette of Huang's works brings to mind Belgian painter Luc Tuymans who also works from photographs. Huang paints in a style which obscures facial features to make her figures unrecognisable, drawing the focus to what isn't painted and leaving meaning open to interpretation. In one picture, a baby hangs suspended. Her swaddling is clasped in an adult's hands, but the space below suggests the possibility of being dropped. HU LIU 胡柳: GRASS (2015) Hu Liu uses pencil to create her work. Each piece takes months to complete, consuming thousands of pencils. The significance of this isn't apparent until you draw closer and the reflective surface of the work reveals itself as paper entirely covered with the metallic lustre of graphite. Hung opposite a painting of the sea, you as the viewer float suspended between the two works. Liu references the Daoist belief in harmony between yin and yang, dark and light — saying, "to know whiteness yet preserve the blackness is to be the model for the world". We think of blackness as an absence of light and colour but this black swims with a carbon sheen almost like petrol. Things are not always what they seem and, as Haruki Murakami said in his Hans Christian Anderson literature award acceptance speech, "just as all people have shadows, every society and nation, too, has shadows. If there are bright, shining aspects, there will definitely be a counterbalancing dark side." It is by considering and embracing both the dark and the light that we can understand our experience. JIU SOCIETY 啾小组: JIU BOBO (2015) Jiu Society is a group of three artists, Fang Di, Ji Hao and Jin Haofan. All born and raised in Shenzhen, the highly modernised city fast becoming the industrial and technological heart of modern China, in this work they re-enact a viral North Korean video. A small child performs, singing "Daddy loves me, Mummy loves me, love me, kiss me and hug me". In this work, these words "become a satirical song of praise to their city against a backdrop of demolition, new construction, propaganda slogans and a looming statue of Deng Xiaoping". The adults singing the song are overlaid with video of what looks like Shenzhen seen through the cross-lines of a tourist camera, as ghostly appearances reminiscent of Jesse Kanda's 3D creations swim in and out of view. Some works in White Rabbit's Hot Blood exhibition may be disturbing to viewers. Gallery attendants are there to guide you and answer questions. Hot Blood runs until August 4 at White Rabbit Gallery. Top images: Electromagnetic Brainology (2017), Lu Yan; Loufu Dream–Pink Pink (2006), Liang Tao; Expected Departure (2004–16), Leung Mee Ping; Guggen' Dizzy (2009–11) and A Route of Evanescence (2015), Mia Liu; Life (2001–11), Yin Xiuzhen; Bees (2010–12) and The Bearable (2007–10), Chen Zhe; Problematic GIFS–No Problem at All (2016), Miao Ying.
Before Dolly Parton's own musical about her life makes its theatre debut, premiering on Broadway in 2026, always loving the music icon on stage is easy thanks to Here You Come Again. Telling the story of a massive fan of the legend and their imagined version of a star like no other, this fellow song-fuelled production is filled with Parton's tunes. It has her stamp of approval, too, and it's coming to Australia in 2025. Here You Come Again has locked in stops in six cities, starting with Melbourne, playing at the Comedy Theatre from July. From there, it'll enjoy a stint at Theatre Royal Sydney from September, before touring to Perth, Newcastle, Canberra and Adelaide at yet-to-be-announced dates. There's no Queensland season so far, but cross your fingers that one gets added. At each of its Aussie destinations, get ready to hear 'Jolene', '9 to 5', 'Islands in the Stream' and 'I Will Always Love You', among other tracks, as the show's protagonist navigates the ups and downs of life with his own fantasy of Dolly by his side. Playing that pivotal part, so slipping into the rhinestones and blonde hair, is Here You Come Again co-creator Tricia Paoluccio — and yes, she's also a Dolly fan. "I've loved Dolly my whole life and have been singing her songs since I was a little girl. It's been my dream to create a musical comedy that celebrates her music while imagining how she might help someone in a real-life way," said Paoluccio, who conjured up the show with Emmy Award-winning comedy writer and songwriter Bruce Vilanch, plus director Gabriel Barre. "Having Dolly's personal stamp of approval on this piece makes it even more special, and I can't wait to bring this production to Australia!" In the US and UK, Here You Come Again has played soldout seasons — and expect it to prove popular Down Under, too. Alongside Paoluccio, Australian Dash Kruck (Little Shop of Horrors, Jesus Christ Superstar) stars, with the local run also set to feature an all-Australian ensemble, plus a live band helping to bring Parton's music to life. Here You Come Again Australian Tour From Thursday, July 10, 2025 — Comedy Theatre, Melbourne From Friday, September 12, 2025 — Theatre Royal Sydney, Sydney Dates TBC — Perth Dates TBC — Newcastle Dates TBC — Canberra Dates TBC — Adelaide Here You Come Again starts touring Australia from July 2025, with ticket presales for Melbourne and Sydney from 9am on Wednesday, March 12 and general sales from Friday, March 14 — head to the production's website for more details, and for waitlists for other cities. Images: UK production, Hugo Glendinning.
When a TV show is as warm as Ted Lasso — when it feels like getting a hug in TV form while you're watching it, in fact — wanting to step right into its frames is an understandable reaction. Fans of the hit soccer-themed sitcom will be able to go one better in October, however, if they're lucky enough to score one mighty nice Airbnb booking: The Crown & Anchor, aka the show's go-to pub in the heart of Richmond. Taking a page out of Ted's (Jason Sudeikis, Saturday Night Live) book, here's a few things for you to believe in: yourself, always; that you deserve a London getaway; and that you can nab one of the three reservations for this AFC Richmond-themed stay. Like all of Airbnb's pop culture-related listings — see also: Hobbiton, the Paris theatre that inspired The Phantom of the Opera, the Bluey house, the Moulin Rouge! windmill, the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, The Godfather mansion, the South Korean estate where BTS filmed In the Soop and the Sanderson sisters' Hocus Pocus cottage, to name just a few — this one is around for a spectacular time but not a long time. The Crown & Anchor will be open for three overnight visits: on Monday, October 23, Tuesday, October 24 and Thursday, October 25. Each booking will welcome in four Ted Lasso-loving Greyhounds supporters, though, so you can gather your obsessed mates and plan one helluva UK jaunt. As well as a night in the pub that's located right around the corner from Ted's apartment — and maybe a dash of the American coach's always-upbeat attitude just by stepping onto the show's home turf — the three groups that nab the reservations will also enjoy nods to the series in a number of ways. You'll sit down to pub fare from The Prince's Head (aka the IRL pub) over a discussion about all things Ted Lasso, wear AFC Richmond gear and cheer on local Richmond sports teams. You'll also play darts, give the pinball machine a go, sit at Ted's go-to table for a round of chess and sing karaoke. And, all that AFC Richmond merch hangs in the bedrooms as well. Biscuits are also part of the visit — naturally — over tea (sorry, Ted is wrong when he calls it "garbage water"). And, you'll be welcomed virtually by the show's Mae, who is played by Annette Badland (Midsomer Murders). All of the above will set you back just £11 (AU$20) plus taxes and fees, with the price reflecting the number of soccer players on the pitch. That said, while the once-in-a-lifetime accommodation comes ridiculously cheap, you do still need to fork out for your flights there and back, plus everything else to do with your London trip. If you're keener than Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein, Uncle) about scowling or Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt, Bless This Mess) about saying as little as possible, you'll need to try to score a reservation at 5am AEDT / 4am AEST / 7am NZDT on Wednesday, March 22. When that date rolls around, you will have seen the first episode of Ted Lasso season three, too — and likely be even more eager to get as close as you can to slipping into the show. And if you strike it lucky with the reservation and want to go all Beard After Hours while you're at The Crown & Anchor, that's up to you. For more information about The Crown & Anchor's listing on Airbnb, or to apply to book at 5am AEDT / 4am AEST / 7am NZDT on Wednesday, March 22, head to the Airbnb website. Images: Henry Woide. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Rise and shine, your next adventure is Montague Island, a magnificent nature reserve nine kilometres off shore. It hosts the biggest fur seal colony in New South Wales, which attracts as many as 2500 seasonal residents, as well as over 90 bird species and a 12,000-strong little penguin colony. The best time to visit if you want a good chance of seeing these animals is during spring, but from late winter the seal colony on the island starts to grow and you're likely to spot penguins on an evening walk around the island. For a more organised tour, Lighthouse Charters offers a variety of options, including day trips with whale watching, snorkelling with fur seals and little penguin watching. To make the most of your trip, book an overnight stay. Montague Island's Assistant Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage sleeps seven people across three bedrooms, and you'll more or less have the island to yourself. Before leaving Narooma, grab an antipasto grazing box from Mr Bold Catering Co, which comes packed with local cheeses, chutneys, cured meats and fruit. Images: Destination NSW
Drive two hours northwest of Melbourne and you'll arrive in the town of Lexton. Perched in Victoria's Pyrenees region, this tiny township is surrounded by outstanding wineries and outdoor adventures, ensuring a visit here will be jam-packed with unforgettable experiences that'll live long in the memory. Whether you prefer to roam grand pictorial gardens or scale the Pyrenees mountains, finding the experience you crave is almost guaranteed. To give you a head start, we've teamed up with Wild Turkey to highlight the activities that'll keep the good times flowing for you and your crew on your next out-of-town adventure. [caption id="attachment_846008" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Arianna Leggiero[/caption] STAY IN A CONVERTED CHURCH Considering the immense beauty of Victoria's Pyrenees, booking yourself into some suitably snug accommodation is the best way to spend the night. Arguably the top spot in the area is Grayling's Gift, an immaculate 19th century church rejuvenated with luxurious furnishings and amenities. Inside, the antique decor includes an elegant clawfoot bathtub, a vintage chesterfield lounge and a wood fireplace that elevates the cosiness factor to the extreme. While breakfast is provided during your stay, there's also a compact kitchen to use — we suggest using it to put together a grazing platter with local produce to enjoy during a star-gazing session in the expansive fields on your doorstep. [caption id="attachment_844023" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] TREK THROUGH THE RAINFOREST Situated on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, Lexton is home to mind-boggling natural beauty. To experience the variety of landscapes in one place, a 30-minute drive to Mount Buangor State Park is your best bet. With its 15 kilometres of interconnected trails, this is the place to explore mountain peaks or delve deeper into the valley floor. If you're looking for a low-intensity hike, the Waterfalls Nature Walk trail should be at the top of your to-do list. Taking just 45 minutes to complete, this return journey sees hikers wander through blue gum forests on their way past three waterfalls, including the stunning Ferntree Falls and the Cascade Falls. [caption id="attachment_844026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] EXPLORE WINE COUNTRY It might seem a little on the nose, but this part of Victoria does indeed get its name from the Pyrenees region stretching between France and Spain. Our Pyrenees wine region dates back to the 1960s, so expect your visit to this thriving food and wine country to be overflowing with delicious flavours. More than 40 cellar doors provide ample opportunity to sample the local varieties, and Blue Pyrenees Estate is considered one of the best. Head to this sprawling estate on the outskirts of Avoca for tasting tours and a refined cafe that overlooks the vineyard. In nearby Moonambel, Summerfield Wines offers an equally delectable experience, featuring world-class vino and woodfired pizzas. ROAM HISTORICAL GARDENS AND HARVEST FRESH PRODUCE Despite its location in the heart of the Goldfields region, Lexton didn't quite have the same luck as its neighbours when it came to buried treasure. However, that didn't stop several great estates from being established in the area. For example, the Mount Mitchell Homestead serves as a lasting symbol of Victoria's pre-federation history. Founded in 1838, this sprawling home offers ten acres of pristine gardens from which to admire the Pyrenees Mountains that rise to the west. Stop in to stroll through the beautiful gardens and working farm, where you can pick up fresh produce like eggs from the resident hens, catch yabbies and fish from the property's lake and pick your own fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs from the orchard and kitchen garden. [caption id="attachment_844028" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Matt (Flickr)[/caption] HIT UP PARMA PALACE When you roll into any country town, a good pub meal is often one of the first things to seek out. Lexton's Pyrenees Family Hotel isn't afraid to put its reputation on the line, with the self-appointed nickname of the 'Parma Palace'. There are 12 plate-sized varieties of the pub classic to choose from here, with each one bound to leave you very satisfied. The pub also features the hallmarks of any classic country pub: there's a top-notch beer garden where you can enjoy a crisp lager beneath the shade of a mulberry tree, a pool room and jukebox. Plus, if you stop by on a Friday night you can even try your luck at winning a meat tray. [caption id="attachment_844031" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Elliot Kramer[/caption] TEST YOUR BUSHWALKING SKILLS There's stellar bushwalking to be found all over the Pyrenees region, but you can quickly access some of the best with a short drive to Beaufort. Here, you'll find the challenging Ben Nevis Walk – a 9.6-kilometre circuit that kicks off with a seriously steep climb up an old 4WD track. As the terrain levels out, you'll have the energy to admire the wildflowers and panoramic views that adorn this landscape. Although this adventure will definitely put even the fittest bushwalkers through their paces, the views from the peak make this journey supremely worthwhile. [caption id="attachment_844032" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Francesco Vicenzi (Flickr)[/caption] EXPERIENCE A NEXT-LEVEL BUSH DOOF Bush doofs don't come much bigger, or more colourful, than the annual Rainbow Serpent Festival. Launched in 1998 in the dusty fields surrounding Lexton, this hedonistic playground presents a global showcase of electronic music, ranging from psytrance to minimal techno. With the pandemic and bushfires quashing recent years, a return is on the cards for Easter 2023. Alongside the mind-melting tunes and sparkling outfits, the festival invites you to explore your spiritual side through immersive art installations, workshops and otherworldly experiences. If that sounds up your alley, get your pals together for a metaphysical reawakening. Just be sure to take a few days off to guarantee your recovery. Find out more about Wild Turkey's Discovery Series at the website. Top image: Elliot Kramer
Two icons of Australian creativity will combine in the country's newest opera, which sees Opera Australia take on the life of famous Aussie artist Brett Whiteley. Called Whiteley, the production will come to the Sydney Opera House across July 15–30, 2019, exploring and honouring not only the celebrated, two-time Archibald Prize-winning painter, but his wife and muse Wendy. And, as well as turning their tale into a song-filled drama, the opera will feature a digital backdrop that'll incorporate the artist's iconic pieces onto huge LED screens. The set design will be Dan Potra's domain — and if you saw any of the Handa Opera shows on Sydney Harbour, or even just saw pictures, then you'll know you're in for a visual treat. As for the rest of the talent behind this take on an Aussie talent, it'll be directed by David Freeman, with music composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and libretto by Justin Fleming. The opera will mark the second time that Whiteley's story and works have made the jump to another medium in just a few short years, following on from the 2017 documentary also called Whiteley — but so far, this latest effort is exclusive to Sydney as part of Opera Australia's packed 2019 season. While a slate of Melbourne productions have also been announced for next year, Whiteley isn't taking the trip down south yet. That means art fans should schedule a mid-year getaway, or cross their fingers that Whiteley will feature among the company's touring productions down the track. Whitely comes to the Sydney Opera House from July 15–30, 2019. For more information or to buy tickets, visit the Opera Australia website. Image: Photo courtesy Brett Whiteley (Australia; England, b.1939, d.1992). Self portrait in the studio 1976. Oil, collage, hair on canvas, 200.5 x 259 cm. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo credit: AGNSW, Chritopher Snee.
First, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under sashayed its way Down Under. Now, the series that's been known as Drag Race Down Under since RuPaul handed over hosting duties to Michelle Visage for season four is sharing its talents with the world. Or, to be more accurate, Drag Race Down Under vs The World is welcoming queens from around the globe to compete against Drag Race Down Under favourites. Stan has announced that Drag Race Down Under vs The World is on its way — although there's no exact release date as yet. The streaming platform has also revealed that Visage, who has been involved in the Drag Race world as a judge since the third season of the OG RuPaul's Drag Race, is hosting. PLus, Rhys Nicholson is back on the judging panel, joined by season four's winner Lazy Susan. Whenever it hits, there'll be eight hour-long episodes of Drag Race Down Under vs The World, all pitting Down Under competitors from the four seasons so far of Drag Race Down Under against contenders from beyond Australia and New Zealand's shores. Viewers will also be tuning in for a show that's following in the footsteps of other Drag Race spinoffs such as UK vs The World and Canada vs The World. The drag queens at the centre of the series haven't yet been announced, either, and neither has the lineup of guest judges. "After four incredible seasons of Drag Race Down Under, we're delighted to bring back our Aussie drag fan-favourites and unleash them onto the world stage," said Michael Healy, Nine Entertainment's Executive Director, Entertainment Content Commissioning. "With a formidable and familiar panel, and the reigning queen Lazy Susan joining the esteemed judges' desk, Drag Race Down Under vs The World will showcase the extraordinary talent we have in Australia and give local audiences a front-row seat to watch our queens shine globally." Drag Race initially made the leap Down Under in 2021 — and if you've been watching since, it's time to start guessing which past queens will be making a comeback for Drag Race Down Under vs The World. Of course, there's no trailer yet for Drag Race Down Under vs The World, but check out clips from past seasons of Drag Race Down Under below: Drag Race Down Under vs The World doesn't yet have a release date, but will stream via Stan and TVNZ when it returns — we'll update you with an exact date when one is announced.
How do you choose Australia's best beach from the country's 11,761 coastal locations? That's the enviable annual job of beach expert Brad Farmer AM. It might sound like one of the best gigs that there is, but it's also far from an easy decision given that there's so many places to pick from in this nation girt by sea. So for 2025, Farmer hasn't been able to select just one — he's opted to anoint a ten-kilometre stretch of beaches as the country's finest instead. You'll find the top spots for some beach time in 2025 along the Tasmanian coastline, at the Bay of Fires Conservation Reserve. Farmer has chosen an expanse across the site's southern portion as his pick for the year. In doing so, he's given his list a few firsts. [caption id="attachment_666210" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sean Scott[/caption] Never before has Tasmania taken out top spot for Farmer's recommendations for sun-, sand- and surf-fuelled getaways for the year ahead. Bay of Fires earns the honour after Squeaky Beach in Victoria did the same in 2024 and South Australia's Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island achieved the feat in 2023. Other past winners include Misery Beach in Western Australia in 2022, Cabarita Beach in New South Wales in 2020, Nudey Beach on Fitzroy island in Far North Queensland in 2018 and Cossies Beach in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, in the Indian Ocean, in 2017. Similarly making history: Farmer selecting a cluster of beaches over a single winner. "I spent plenty of time in Tasmania assessing the beaches and in the end there were so many incredible options I couldn't even settle on one, which is why, for the first time, I'm awarding the best beach to a cluster of neighbouring beach bays in the Bay of Fires," he advised. "They say the colder water is good for you, but even if you're not up for a refreshing dip there is still plenty to do and see along this ten-kilometre stretch of coast. It's a location made for photography or painting, fishing and surfing." [caption id="attachment_990475" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Liz McGinnes[/caption] As always, Farmer has spread the love across his top-ten list around the country. Woolgoolga in New South Wales came in second, then Emily Bay Lagoon on Norfolk Island placed third, Queensland's North Kirra Beach ranked fourth and Little Lagoon in Western Australia sits fifth. After that, South Australia's Fishery Bay earned sixth position, before Queensland, WA and NSW all pop up again — with 1770, Scarborough Beach and Caves Beach, respectively, in that order. Then, Victoria makes a showing thanks to Cowes Beach in tenth place. Situated on the Coffs Coast, Woolgoolga has notched up an impressive feat, too: its second-place ranking makes it Australia's best mainland beach and finished in second spot. Farmer has dubbed it "the quintessential Aussie beach destination". [caption id="attachment_990476" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Norfolk Island Tourism[/caption] He's also badged Emily Bay Lagoon as "Australia's hidden gem in the South Pacific" and North Kirra on the Gold Coast as "Australia's best airport beach". The praise goes on; Shark Bay's Little Lagoon is "a unique oasis", Eyre Peninsula's Fishery Bay is recognised for its sacred First Nations connections and 1770 near Agnes Waters is highlighted for being "a beautiful Queensland inlet shoreline environment". Perth's Scarborough Beach is "Australia's number-one integrated foreshore development", while Caves Beach in Lake Macquarie has the best caves and rock pools to explore, and Cowes Beach on Phillip Island earns affection for its lack of pretence. [caption id="attachment_990477" align="alignnone" width="1920"] www.coastalreflections.com.au[/caption] "Every beach which makes the list is a winner and this year really highlights the incredible diversity of the beach offerings we have here in Australia. It really is like nowhere else in the world. In 2025 we recognise beaches of all shapes and sizes right around the country," he continues. Farmer might've unveiled his picks with less than a month left of summer 2024–25, but you still know what to do from here: start making holiday plans that involve a splash. For Aussies in most states, there's a site on the list in your own backyard. And if there isn't or you're just keen on heading further afield for a gorgeous beach trip, you have options. [caption id="attachment_990478" align="alignnone" width="1920"] @theultimateaus Chris Bulloch[/caption] The Top Ten Best Australian Beaches for 2025 1. Bay of Fires, Tasmania 2. Woolgoolga, New South Wales 3. Emily Bay Lagoon, Norfolk Island 4. North Kirra Beach, Queensland 5. Little Lagoon, Western Australia 6. Fishery Bay, South Australia 7. 1770, Queensland 8. Scarborough Beach, Western Australia 9. Caves Beach, New South Wales 10. Cowes Beach, Victoria [caption id="attachment_990479" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Serio Photography[/caption] [caption id="attachment_990480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] londonerinsydney.com[/caption] [caption id="attachment_990481" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Will Wardle Media[/caption] [caption id="attachment_990482" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lake Macquarie City[/caption] [caption id="attachment_990483" align="alignnone" width="1920"] www.coastalreflections.com.au[/caption] For more of Brad Farmer's beach tips, head to his Best Australian Beaches website. Top image: Will Wardle Media. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Have your weekday lunches and dinners been lacking in lustre a bit recently? Are you ready to retire the soggy sandwich, or underdressed salad, and make your meals a little more exciting? Thanks to the Rockpool Dining Group you can — without breaking the budget. A heap of the group's fancy Sydney restaurants, which are overseen by chef Neil Perry, are serving up tasty dishes — and a glass of wine or cocktail — for a mere $25 at lunch and dinner for ten days this month. Head out for a meal in the CBD between Monday, April 15 and Sunday, April 28 and you can pick from the likes of a David Blackmore wagyu burger at Rockpool Bar & Grill paired with a glass of shiraz, pizza and Chianti at Rosetta, three tacos and a margarita at Bar Patrón or a prime rib sandwich and a glass or red or white at The Cut Bar & Grill. And all of them will set you back just $25. It doesn't stop there, either. Regional Chinese fine-diner Spice Temple will be pairing one of its five bar noodle dishes — pick from spicy pork and fermented chilli belt noodles, Shanghai noodles with braised lamb and crispy chow mein with pork — with its famed Zodiac Cocktails for just $25 a pop, too. Since these 12 cocktails usually set you back at least $20, it's a pretty great deal. You can check them all out here. Not in the city? All all Saké outposts — in Manly, Double Bay and the Rocks — will be offering a $25 deal, too, serving up a selection of sashimi and nigiri with a Sapporo or glass of wine for the discounted price. To snag the deal head in to any of the below restaurants for lunch or dinner — the only catch is you'll have to sit at the bar. Bookings can be made here. ROCKPOOL DINING GROUP'S $25 BAR LUNCH LOCATIONS Rockpool Bar & Grill Spice Temple Rosetta Trattoria The Cut Bar & Grill Bar Patrón Saké The Rocks, Manly, Double Bay UPDATE: APRIL 12, 2019 — Rockpool Dining Group's $25 meals were originally only available at lunch. They're now available at lunch and dinner. The above copy has been updated to reflect this.
The good folks at Assembly are expanding. Soon, you'll stepping straight from their cocktail-conjuring treehouse into an Italian restaurant. As faithful Assembly-goers know, the crew likes to do things just right. So, they're bringing in an iguanadon-sized, handmade woodfire oven, all the way from Italy. Plus, they've invited none other than former Da Orazio Pizza & Porchetta chef Nick Pulcher to create the menu. Just some of the yummy, yummy dishes he's come up with are: fresh burrata cradled by heirloom tomatoes, Spanish onion, roasted capsicum, olives and basil ($19); tagliolini al nero di sepia – housemade, black-ink tagliolini sautéed with crab meat and prawns ($26.50); costolette di agnello — lamb cutlet raised on New South Wales's rolling pastures and served up with green pea puree, baby carrots and caramelised Spanish onion ($33.50); and that delizioso classic, panna cotta ($12). Chef Antonio Buonomo will be staying warm next to the oven, where he'll whipping up an immoveable Napoli-style feast. You can get stuck into his pizzas in the restaurant or in the bar, or take them home. Among the deliciousness on the list you'll find margherita — San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, parmesan, basil, olive oil ($18); quattro formaggi – buffalo mozzarella, mozzarella fior di latte, gorgonzola, smoked provola cheese, fresh basil, olive oil ($24); and salumi – San Marzano tomato, mozzarella fior di latte, ham, mild salami, hot salami, Italian sausage, basil, olive oil ($25). Some might find Assembly's Regent Place location strange for a small bar, but we reckon it's a great escape from the CBD's madness and fast food chains, when you don't have time to travel further afield. The interior is a bit of a paean to the many forces shaping international design. If you use a knife and fork to eat pizza (you heathen!), you'll be wrapping your hands around Italian cutlery. Some of the crockery, all the concrete lights and the marble table come from there, too. Meanwhile, other bits of crockery were made in France and Denmark and the tiles are Espanol. Digging the timber that the tables and chairs are made of? It's all recycled, eco-friendly stuff from Tassie. Find Assembly restaurant at 488 Kent Street, Sydney from Wednesday, February 17. Head down for lunch and dinner seven days a week. The bar opens from midday daily.
Darlinghurst's Sunday roast and craft beer specialist The Taphouse is expanding — upwards. The heritage-listed pub known for its expansive list of brews, sunny courtyard and hearty food offering has opened a new rooftop bar with a focus on inventive cocktails to complement the city views. Located two storeys above The Taphouse, Elm Rooftop Bar overlooks the bustling streets of Darlinghurst. The space embodies the classic alfresco setting with an abundance of leafy vines and hanging plants soaking up the sun beside you. The retractable awning also promises shelter from the elements on less favourable days, meaning Elm is open rain, hail or shine. Unlike the bar's beer-loving downstairs counterpart, Elm's drinks menu is all about variety. Owner Joshua Thorpe even goes as far as to describe the rooftop as "an outdoor cocktail and seltzer oasis". On the cocktail list you can find a variety of juice-based cocktails including the High Passion, a gin and passionfruit liqueur creation topped with freshly squeezed cucumber juice, or Elm's take on the bloody mary made with basil-infused vodka. [caption id="attachment_802633" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jess Brown[/caption] If you haven't jumped fully on board the hard seltzer craze quite yet, Elm is a great place to start, with a wide-reaching selection of the buzzed-about drink on offer. Alongside the cocktails and seltzers, quality selections from The Taphouse's beer list will also be brought upstairs, with over 20 local craft beers available on tap, as well as a range of wines including orange drops poured by the glass. For those on the hunt for an afternoon snack in the sun, a variety of share plates can be ordered, from fish tacos with spicy tartare and southern-fried cauliflower bites, to selections of cured meats and cheeses – although there's nothing stopping you from making a cameo on the rooftop for a drink before heading back downstairs for a beloved Taphouse roast. Find Elm Rooftop Bar at Level 2, 122 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst from 5pm–10pm Thursday, 12pm–10pm Friday and Saturday and 12pm–9pm Sunday. Images: Jess Brown
For the past decade, personal health has become a paradox. Never have people exercised more, tracked more, supplemented more or optimised more and yet uncertainty has never been higher. Protein intake is debated daily. Sleep protocols multiply. Longevity routines proliferate. People are trying. Consistently. But largely without visibility. This is the cultural gap Everlab is built to address, not as another wellness brand promising better habits, but as a fundamentally different way of approaching health: calm, preventative and data-led. Their premise is simple, most people aren't failing their health because of motivation. They're failing because they're guessing. The invisible years of health One of Everlab's central ideas is that longevity doesn't begin later in life, it begins decades earlier, in the silent phase before symptoms. Most chronic conditions develop gradually and invisibly, cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, hormonal decline, inflammatory disorders. For years, people can feel entirely fine while risk quietly accumulates. Traditional healthcare rarely intersects with this phase. It is designed for treatment, not early detection. Appointments are short. Testing is symptom-driven. Investigation begins once a problem is suspected. Everlab's model inverts that timeline. Rather than waiting for symptoms, the program maps health proactively through comprehensive diagnostics across cardiovascular, metabolic, hormonal, immune and musculoskeletal systems, alongside imaging, advanced blood biomarkers and genetic insights. The aim is not diagnosis of illness. It is visibility into trajectory. Why guessing keeps people stuck Modern health culture offers abundant advice but little precision. People experiment with supplements, diets, training plans, and recovery tools. When results plateau, motivation is often blamed, discipline, consistency, adherence. Everlab reframes this entirely. Without biomarker insight, health decisions become trial-and-error. Symptoms are lagging indicators. Fatigue, weight change or poor recovery often appear only after underlying physiology has shifted. The company's position is that most people are not under-committed; they are under-informed. Through advanced blood panels screening hundreds of biomarkers, physiological testing and longitudinal tracking, Everlab attempts to replace guesswork with clarity — identifying which systems actually require attention, and which interventions are unnecessary. In this sense, the program is as much about subtraction as optimisation, reducing wasted effort, spend and misplaced focus. Beyond transactional healthcare Everlab also reflects a broader shift from episodic healthcare to continuous health management. Traditional models operate in snapshots, isolated tests, individual appointments, fragmented records. Preventative health requires continuity: baseline, monitoring, retesting, adjustment. Everlab structures this as an ongoing cycle. Members build a comprehensive baseline integrating historical records, advanced diagnostics and imaging. Results are reviewed by a multidisciplinary care team including longevity physicians and nutrition specialists. A personalised protocol is created across lifestyle, supplementation and, where clinically indicated, medication. Biomarkers are then tracked over time, typically at six- and twelve-month intervals, allowing physiological change to be measured rather than assumed. A digital platform consolidates results and trends into a longitudinal health record. Data-led prevention Everlab arrives as health culture itself matures. The early wellness era emphasised motivation. The optimisation era emphasised performance. The emerging phase emphasises measurement and prevention. In this model, biomarkers become the organising principle of decision-making. They allow risks to be identified years before symptoms, interventions to be personalised to physiology rather than averages, and progress to be measured rather than guessed. Everlab frames this shift succinctly: health decisions should be guided by data, not trends. A framework, not a fix Notably, Everlab avoids positioning itself as a quick-outcome wellness product. Its language is structural: baseline, diagnostics, monitoring, optimisation. This reflects its deeper claim, that prevention is not an intervention but a framework. The company reports that a meaningful proportion of members discover previously unknown health risks through testing, reinforcing its central thesis: feeling well does not necessarily mean being physiologically optimal. The opportunity lies in the gap between the two. Stop guessing Everlab's relevance lies less in any individual test than in the question it poses to modern health behaviour, what if the problem isn't effort, but visibility? In a category saturated with motivation and optimisation narratives, Everlab positions itself differently, as a rational infrastructure for prevention grounded in biomarkers and longitudinal data. A calm voice in a noisy space.And a reframing that may define the next phase of personal health. Stop guessing. Start knowing. To start a deep dive into your health journey visit Everlab to explore a framework suited to your needs.
No wristband or badge? No worries — SXSW Sydney's free festival hub at Tumbalong Park is open to everyone, whether you've already planned out your whole week or are just curious to see what the fuss is about. Running for the duration of SXSW, from Sunday, October 15, to Sunday, October 22, the event will feature brand activations, live music, tech demos, gaming competitions, presentations and an outdoor cinema — it's basically a self-contained sample of the entire SXSW program. Wander through the maze at CommBank House to learn about CommBank's latest innovations in tech and how they're helping young adults save and earn more, manage their money and stay safe from cybercrime. Popular bakery Lode will serve coffees and pastries at Porsche House, where tattoos, photography and art will be featured, before it turns into a bar come sunset. You (visually and figuratively) can't miss Suntory Minus 196's 12-metre-tall Extreme Vending Machine. Enjoy a cold one at the Double Lemon Garden on the ground floor before moving through the structure to a display of the brand's freezing technology and then up to the rooftop bar, where there'll be a selection of Japanese snacks, Double Lemon and Grape drinks, plus a DJ. Back on the ground, you can catch live music sets from a selection of local and international artists at the Music Festival Presentation, which will run for five days throughout the week. Young Henry's Rock & Roll Circus on Wednesday, October 18, will feature artists such as Dan Sultan, Wallice and Tyne-James Organ covering rock classics, while Touchdown Down Under on Thursday, October 19, and Friday, October 20, will showcase musical artists from Asia to the Middle East. For the film fanatics, you can celebrate the start of the screen program at the Screen Festival Opening Party with bands and DJs from 7–10pm on Sunday, October 15. There will also be a series of movie screenings at the outdoor cinema on select days throughout the week. [caption id="attachment_920356" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jess Gleeson[/caption] Gamers can tag along to the Games Festival Presentation on Sunday, October 15, and Sunday, October 22, or flex their skills at the community esports competition on Tuesday, October 17. You might not be able to hear from Chance the Rapper or Nicole Kidman, but you can still get inspired at one of the presentations, demonstrations or talks at Tumbalong Park. See rockets, rovers and go-karts designed by UTS students or watch a cooking demonstration by artist Yiying Lu (creator of the dumpling emoji) and James Beard Award-winning chef Martin Yan. And don't forget to mark your diaries for national treasure Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, who will join comedian and presenter Adam Spencer on Saturday, October 21. SXSW Sydney's festival hub will take over Tumbalong Park from Sunday, October 15, to Sunday, October 22. Check out the full program for Tumbalong Park at the SXSW Sydney website. Top image: Tumbalong Park, Vivid, Destination NSW.
It's usually safe to assume that bottled beer is better than canned. Conjuring up unappealing images of the VB tinnies in your granddad's fridge, your options for canned beverage usually consist of the bottom rung of local draught offerings. Unless you're heading to a festival, you'll usually skip over the canned section of the bottle-o entirely. Rightly so. But now, local brewers Modus Operandi are reinvigorating the tired tinnie with the "CANimal" — at 946mL of crushable aluminium glory it's being touted as the biggest beer can in the country. In an Australian first, they are also selling this frothy beast straight from their Mona Vale brewery. Pulled from the tap and canned on request, you can fill this absolute behemoth with any of the craft brews they offer on site. Modus Operandi will in fact be the second brewery in the world to offer the service and, somewhat unsurprisingly, the owners got the idea while travelling in America. While they're a nation known for their excess and love of comically large foodstuffs, beer cans are also much more common in the US. It was only a matter of time 'til they dared to make one that packed in an arm-buckling litre of liquid. "[With cans] you have the freedom of storing beer longer and eliminating the negative effects of UV light in a portable, unbreakable and crushable vessel," brewery owner Grant Wearin told Good Food. And, while we're not sure how portable they really are for people like us (puny armed schooner drinkers), we're willing to give them a go. Oktoberfest is coming up. The CANimal is basically a pre-packaged stein. Modus Operandi Brewing Co is located at 14 Harkeith Street, Mona Vale. The brewery is open from 12pm - 10pm from Wednesday - Sunday and you can get yourself a CANimal for $17-21 depending on the type of beer. Via Good Food and Crafty Pint. Images via Modus Operandi's Brewing Co.
Back with a new lease on life, Sydney's oldest pub, the Fortune of War, is ready to receive guests again almost 200 years after it first opened. Relaunching with the new 60-seat Bistro 1828 and an expansive breakfast offering, this storied venue's next chapter is bound to be a bright one in its enduring history. Nestled in a heritage-listed building, two neighbouring retail stores and a bar were carefully transformed to create the new bistro, with its name serving as a nod to the year former convict Samuel Terry founded this venerable institution. While the venue has been revamped, maintaining its old-world character was a vital consideration for WDS Hotels group co-owner Steve Speed. Inside, design details reflect the building's immense legacy, from beaten copper panelling to 19th-century medicine bottles and old maps. Says Speed: "We had outgrown the previous space, so by opening Bistro 1828, more people are able to enjoy the historic charm, character and sense of community that accompanies every visit to Sydney's oldest pub." From its home on the corner of George and Globe Streets, the bar offers a mix of high, table and bench seating. Slide into the Italian leather banquettes to sip down a cold brew as the sun streams in through the stained-glass windows. Then, in the main dining room, floor-to-ceiling windows and an elevated rear space provide several cosy spots to suit your mood. Meanwhile, a new open kitchen slots between these zones, significantly increasing the venue's capabilities, with an extensive breakfast offering an exciting addition. Led by new Executive Chef Mark Williamson (The Woollahra Hotel), the menu spans classic and signature options, like avo on toast, eggs benedict and breakfast burgers, alongside the Fortune of War big breakfast. Plus, there's a new bloody mary made with the pub's secret recipe set to give your day a boost. "Going out for breakfast is such an Australian tradition, so we're thrilled to now offer it at this iconic location, whether you're enjoying it as part of your hotel stay or passing by," says Speed. The venue's all-day dining menu has also been expanded and elevated, with guests welcome to order from it in the original pub, Bistro 1828 or amid the sunny alfresco area. Regulars will be happy to know that much-loved favourites like the beef and Guinness stew and the fish and chips are still on the menu, while Williamson has added fresh salads, pastas and shared starters. Meanwhile, a Sunday roast will be served in the near future. The Fortune of War's accommodation has also received a complete renovation, with the upstairs Russell Boutique Hotel ready for bookings. Featuring 28 rooms with unique designs, each offers a sophisticated blend of modern comforts and vintage charm, from antique furnishings to marble fireplaces. "[The Fortune of War] has been a destination watering hole for almost 200 years, and this renovation will ensure it stays that way for the next 200," says Speed. Bistro 1828 is open daily from 7am–late, while the Fortune of War opens from 9am at 137 George St, The Rocks. Head to the website for more information. Images: Kitti Gould / David Li.
Since its debut in 2022, Always Live has quickly become a loud and proud voice for sharing everything great about contemporary music and highlighting outstanding venues from Geelong to Gippsland and Ballarat to Bendigo. The stage is set for a 2024 return, with a huge range of artists set to hit venues all over Victoria from Friday, November 22, to Sunday, December 8. Leading the program is the Australian debut of genre-defying performer and artist Anyma, who's fresh off a record-sold-out six-show residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. Accordingly, the largest screen in the southern hemisphere will be set up for the show at Flemington Racecourse. [caption id="attachment_969884" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Ian Laidlaw[/caption] Other headline acts include Californian punk rock group The Offspring, who are bringing their famous punk energy to the stage for a one-night-only show. Tina Arena will perform at Mornington Racecourse in celebration of the 30th anniversary of her breakout album Don't Ask. Meanwhile, Victorian-based singer Missy Higgins will conclude her national tour with a show at Sidney Myer Music Bowl. A massive LGBTQIA+ party is kicking off in Port Melbourne, headlined by Irish artist Roísín Murphy alongside a set of global and local artists alike. Rockers St Vincent will hit two classic venues: Palais Theatre in St Kilda and Her Majesty's Theatre in Ballarat before returning to Melbourne for 'An Intimate Audience with St Vincent'. This one-of-a-kind show is a half-concert, half-dining experience and takes place in The Aviary, Crown Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_969882" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Simon Fazio[/caption] The program truly goes on and on and on, with shows from Chet Faker, Jack White, Baker Boy, The Rions and many, many more. You'd best start preparing a plan to hit as many shows as possible. Always Live 2024 runs from Friday, November 22, to Sunday, December 8, at venues across Victoria. For more information and to book tickets, visit the website.
Penrith is the best-kept secret of the greater Sydney gastronomic scene. The eateries here aren't dishing up ho-hum suburban spreads. Hearty Italian fare with a chic, Riviera-style vibe. Classic Spanish tapas prepared with local and seasonal produce. Funky Mexican-inspired share plates. Casual bars where you'll feel like a local with extensive wine and cocktail lists to rival any in the city centre. And plenty of breweries to while away your afternoon on fresh, frosty froths. We've put together a hitlist of the top spots to eat, drink and be merry all day — and night — long in Penrith. We hope you're hungry, this is going to be one delicious outing.
Proving they know their audience, the newly revamped Buena Vista in Mosman is a little bit fancy. And while it's a pub at heart, the marble-topped bar — adorned with a veritable high-end selection of gins and whiskies — is the first sign that The Buena (as it's now named) is not your average pub. You'll still find sports on the TV and a crowd of people knocking back an after-work beer (along with the usual suspects, they have Young Henrys on tap) but you're also just as likely to see a group polishing off a casual bottle of Billecart-Salmon champagne ($125 a bottle). Upstairs in the Vista Bar it's no different. While the setting is casual and homely, reminiscent of a chic outdoor (but actually indoor) entertaining area, complete with a deck, ferns and a lounge area, the gastropub menu takes it up a notch. They do offer pub classics like chicken schnitzel with chips and slaw ($24), rump ($28) or eye fillet steak, and a wagyu burger topped with melted Monterey Jack cheese, pickles and a smoked tomato aioli ($22), but, as you would expect from a menu that Guillaume Brahimi has had a hand in, there's so much more. The Vista Bar's menu gives you the option to fly solo or share. If you're all for the latter, start with yellowfin tuna poke with sesame and squid ink crackers — which take six hours to make and an instant to eat — or order a few crab sliders ($7 each) or barramundi tacos ($6 each) between you. And with the option to have any of their wood-fired pizzas made on a gluten free base, sharing with a big group is easy. Sticking to their penchant for the finer things, you can expect to choose from toppings such as truffles as opposed to ham and pineapple. Healthy options are available too, and The Buena won't leave you feeling like you're paying your penance. The smoked trout, warm potato, spinach and dill salad with a seeded mustard dressing ($21) is far from boring and has enough substance to keep any food envy at bay. If this all sounds great but you're not one to share, the miso salmon with broad beans, pickled cucumber and green tea noodles ($29) is something you won't find at most locals. It's one of the details that make The Buena a great option for a not-so casual night with mates on the lower north shore. UPDATE 10 JULY 2017: If you're looking for a cheap mid-week dinner, The Buena does $4 tacos and $10 margaritas in the Vista Bar on Thursdays. Hop to it.
If Fisher could pick anywhere to put on a massive beachside dance party-slash-music festival, where would he choose? The Gold Coast DJ — and former pro surfer, too — went with his hometown when he started OUT 2 LUNCH, of course. When it debuted in 2024, giving Australia its biggest beach party ever, the event sold out within minutes. For the fest's return in 2025, it's unsurprisingly scaling up. While the first-ever OUT 2 LUNCH took place at Coolangatta Beach and welcomed 30,000 attendees, the second fest is taking over to Surfers Paradise Beach instead — and hosting 40,000-plus music lovers this time around. The dates for your diary: Saturday, May 3–Sunday, May 4. If you're a Queenslander, you'll be excited to know that the festival falls on the Labour Day long weekend. On the lineup, the man behind the fest is on headline duties on both nights at what's set to be the Gold Coast's biggest-ever dance party, with plenty of company from a mix of international names and local acts. Chris Lake, DJ Boring, Little Fritter and Shimmy will also hop behind the decks on the Saturday, while Hayden James, Patrick Topping, Noizu and Jake Smith are set to do the same on the Sunday. Keen to seem them all, including Fisher twice? Two-day tickets are available. If you can only make it on either the Saturday or the Sunday, so are single-day passes. "OUT 2 LUNCH Festival is back this May for the second year running and I can't wait to do it all again!! We've got a great lineup and there's no better place than Surfers Paradise to have a beach bash. Aussies just love a party and I'm ready to put it on for you," said Fisher, announcing the 2025 lineup. Heading along, whether you're a local or travelling from interstate — which plenty did in 2024, resulting in $50 million being injected into the local economy — means helping a great cause, too. Last year, OUT 2 LUNCH raised money for the Starlight Foundation and The Pink Elephants Support Network. This year, it's donating $1 per ticket sold to the Make a Wish Foundation. OUT 2 LUNCH Festival 2025 Lineup Saturday, May 3 Fisher Hayden James Patrick Topping Noizu Jake Smith Sunday, May 4 Fisher Chris Lake DJ Boring Little Fritter Shimmy [caption id="attachment_992031" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anthony Ghnassia[/caption] OUT 2 LUNCH Festival is returning for 2025 across Saturday, May 3–Sunday, May 4 at Surfers Paradise Beach on the Gold Coast — with ticket presales from 9am AEST on Tuesday, February 25 and general sales from 1pm AEST on Wednesday, February 26. Head to the event's website for more details. OUT 2 LUNCH Festival images: tommynortz.
You think origami, you think folding paper. But this April, put your assumptions to one side and think about what else could possibly be folded. At the Gosford Regional Gallery and Edogawa Commemorative Garden, an incredible visual spectacle is taking place on Saturday, April 13 with a host of musical acts, including DJ duo Stereogamous, pop artist Tessa Thames, and circus performer Ray Matthews. Attendees of Origami – Folding Light and Sound are advised to come dressed for a garden party (flowers in your hair, plant-themed accessories and the like), albeit a garden party that features a traditional Japanese teahouse, delicious Sichuan dumplings, and aerial cabaret. It's all the brainchild of the not-for-profit Naughty Noodle Fun Haus collective, which, since 2018, has been organising community entertainment events with a strong focus on inclusion, diversity and acceptance. In the collective's own words, they "proudly embrace renegade artists and thought-leaders who are courageous, outrageous and mind-blowing". All you have to do is bring a picnic blanket, lawn furniture and an open mind, and you'll be treated to a sunset experience where you can dance to your heart's content, find quiet contemplation in nature, and everything in between. Origami promises to turn Gosford into a tactile, audio/visual wonderland, giving you an evening that you'll never want to forget. Origami — Folding Light and Sound is coming to Gosford Regional Gallery and Edogawa Commemorative Garden, 36 Webb St, on Saturday, April 13, from 5—11pm. Tickets will set you back $45 or get a group of mates together for a concession. For more information or to grab tickets, visit the website.
There are plenty of ways to enjoy a blast from the past, but stepping inside a museum is one of the most reliable. Head to the Australian Museum in Sydney right now and a trip back to Peru more than 3000 years ago awaits. For its big summer exhibition for 2024–25, the venue is hosting the Aussie-exclusive season of Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, displaying 134 priceless artefacts including the most-opulent collection of Andean gold that's ever left the South American nation. Move over Egypt: after the Harbour City institution dedicated the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 to Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs, it's now time to wrap up one year and kick off another with a different journey backwards. Featuring jewels, masks and other treasures, some of which were found in royal tombs, this historical showcase hails from Peru's Museo Larco and Museo de Sito Manuel Chavez Ballon. To make the exhibition's six-month stay even more immersive, a virtual-reality tour of Machu Picchu is also part of the experience (albeit at an extra fee). Six cultures are in the spotlight: Chavín, Moche, Chimú, Nazca, Lambayeque and Inca. The array of items is also organised into six themes, taking attendees through ancient Peruvian societies' beginnings, religious beliefs and traditions, and the power wielded by royalty. Trade, agriculture, and Spanish conquistadors forcing their decline: they're covered as well. Sometimes, visitors will peer at gleaming body ornaments. Sometimes, rare ceramics await. From textiles to ceremonial tools, plus bowls to statuettes, the collection is wide-ranging — including in pairing earthy pottery tones with shining gems and metals (as well as gold, silver and gilded copper also feature). As for the VR, this highlight of the program is the first-ever virtual-reality 'fly-through' of the famous site, which won Best Use of VR at the Lumiere Awards. The experience will get you feeling as if you've been transported both back in time and to the other side of the world — not just via VR, but also 360-degree motion chairs and drone footage. The vision featured was recorded at the World Heritage-listed site when Machu Picchu was closed to visitors during the early days of the pandemic. Sydney is just the fourth place in the world to welcome Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru, after the exhibition's stops in Boca Raton in the US, Paris in France and Milan in Italy. "Full of mystery and culture dating back over 14,000 years, Peru is a stunning land of deserts etched with ancient geoglyphs shown in the Nazca Lines, soaring peaks harbouring secret cities like Machu Picchu and awe-inspiring landscapes" said Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay, opening Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru. "We invite visitors to uncover the extraordinary legacy of ancient Peru, by visiting Machu Picchu and The Golden Empires of Peru exclusively here in Sydney. It is a cultural experience right at the top of everyone's travel bucket list." Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru opened at the Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney on Saturday, November 23, 2024 — head to the exhibition website for further details and tickets. Images: Cain Cooper.
Music is about more than just a great tune — it also has the power to inform and inspire action. That's the idea behind the Environmental Music Prize — a $20,000 prize launched in 2022 awarded to artists exploring ideas around sustainability and conservation in their music. With voting open until Sunday, December 14, the public is invited to have their say on the tracks that get them reflecting on the importance of nature. Just choose three choice tunes and share them with your pals to help spread the word about music that speaks to the kind of world we want to live in. [caption id="attachment_1052482" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Debbie Hickey/Getty Images[/caption] "Music reminds us of what's at stake, but it also gives us hope," says Prize Founder Edwina Floch. "These songs capture the beauty of nature, the spirit of Country and the resilience of communities rising to protect it. Together, they form a powerful soundtrack for now." With the 30 finalist songs now revealed, each is jam-packed with lyrical meaning and taken to even greater heights with evocative music videos. Think King Stingray's Through the Trees, Angie McMahon's Mother Nature or DOBBY's Dirrpi Yuin Patjulinya, alongside dozens more. "Music connects where other messages can't," explains Floch. "By voting and sharing these songs, fans can help amplify the voices of artists shaping a more sustainable culture, because change begins in the stories we tell and the songs we sing." With this year's prize announced on Wednesday, December 17, the highest voted artist will join much-loved past winners like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Xavier Rudd. Both donated the money to grassroots conservation initiatives, giving even more meaning to their songwriting prowess. Voting for the 2025 Environmental Music Prize closes on Sunday, December 14. Head to the website for more information.
Beer lovers, this one's for you. Sydney hospitality giant Merivale is dedicating all of October to frosty cans and perfect pours of everyone's favourite golden ale: beer. The month of brew-centric celebrations will span a heap of Merivale venues, popping up with different events and activations. The flagship event is the Hop & Dreams craft beer festival. This two-day spotlight on independent brewers will take over The Newport's deck on Sunday, October 15 and The Vic on the Park's beer garden on Sunday, October 22. Brewers including Balter, Grifter, Mountain Culture, Young Henrys, Hawke's and 4 Pines will all be in attendance, pouring beers alongside live entertainment and top-notch eats. Before that, a heap of Merivale venues are offering pints for schooner prices between Tuesday, October 3–Saturday, October 8. Three Weeds Rozelle, The Alex, Norton's, Coogee Pavilion's ground floor, The Beresford and The Royal Bondi are among the more than 20 venues taking part in the deal, which applies to all tap beers. The Merivale beer festival continues over at Establishment, where the venue is rolling out The Froth Exchange. Between 3–8pm across Tuesday, October 17–Friday, October 20, beer prices will fluctuate in a stock market fashion. This will culminate on Thursday, October 19, when you can expect a market crash and some truly cheap bevs. Rounding out the festivities is a free gig from laidback indie-rockers Winston Surfshirt. The beloved band will be taking to the Ivy mainstage on Wednesday, October 18. Doors will open at 7pm and entry will be on a first-come-first-serve basis. [caption id="attachment_708571" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Beresford[/caption]
Update: This event has been postponed to Friday, June 13 and Saturday, June 14, 2025, due to unforeseen circumstances. One of Sydney's most popular tourist attractions is set to undergo a blood-curdling transformation. During two consecutive weekends, October 25–27 and November 1–3, a wander around the ghostly grounds of Cockatoo Island will become a delightfully nightmare-inducing experience. Visitors can face their fears at the Tunnels of Terror — a pair of immersive Halloween pop-ups featuring live actors. First, there's The Haunted, filled with spectres from beyond the veil, and then, taking its cues from Cockatoo Island's troubled past as a sanatorium for orphaned girls, there's The Asylum, a deranged descent into madness. Expect to be chilled to the bone with each unsettling step you take. If you manage to escape these tortured tunnels, your reward will be a devilishly delicious bounty of spooky snacks. Indulge in food truck treats and sips from signature Blood Bag cocktails (or mocktails) at the bar. You can also get into the Halloween spirit with the help of expert special effect makeup demos and show off your killer dance moves by learning the iconic MJ 'Thriller' dance. Tickets for access into the tunnels start from $40 and group packages are available for friends and families craving a truly terrifying Halloween experience. Travel with ease to the island with ferries every 20 minutes from Parramatta and Circular Quay. For young daredevils who may not be ready for the full-throttle horror of the tunnels, there are family-friendly sessions between 4–5 pm on Saturdays and 2–3 p.m. on Sundays for teens aged 14-18. Visitors to the evening sessions which run from 7–9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 5–7 pm on Sundays, must be aged over 18.
For the rock 'n' roller, walking into Vasco is a little like walking into that dream where you got everything you ever wanted. Remember that one? That was the best. However, it only takes one glance behind the bar to realise your mistake. This is not your dream; this is Max Greco's dream, and he gets to live it. The former head bartender of Eau-de-Vie opened this den of a bar last year, bringing along head bottle-slinger Luke Ashton (The Roosevelt) for the ride. The decor is part smooth Italiano, part the bedroom of an obsessed fan and all details — a visual feast of record covers, photos and memorabilia. Just make sure you focus, avoid the temptation of the jukebox (for now) and find yourself a table. We opted for a seat at the bar (wait, is this a Fender stool? Seriously, how long have they been sourcing this stuff for? And what does his house look like?) before the barman passed over an old record cover, which houses Vasco's playlist (read: cocktail list), and it was time to get spinning. Something about two dark spirits in the one cocktail tends to bring out my competitive side, so an Old Yellow Bricks ($17.50) was soon shaken up: Monkey Shoulder, Sailor Jerry, lemon, cherry bitters and that all-spice-for all-things-nice pimento dram with agave to sweeten. There is not much point dwelling on this one, even though it deserves it. This is simply a good drink — well crafted, balanced and complex enough to keep me sipping at it until it miraculously disappears and all eyes are back on the playlist. Stir down some Applejack brandy and Punt e Mes with Dom Benedictine, Fernet Branca and bitters and you have an Eagle Rock ($17.50) that succeeds where the Daddy Cool hit always left me cold. It could be a touch stiff for those more accustomed to white spirits, but this bad-boy has me seriously considering a move to Cleveland Street. If you are starting to feel that nicotine pinch (or you are just desperate for the lav), it's time to head out to the AstroTurf patio — decked out with a few chairs, chunky ashtrays and a bunch of old records arranged in a V (get it?). On a slightly warmer night, this would be the spot of choice, but even with fresh change, it beat out the jukebox, guitar-on-the-wall and sheet-music-covered toilets for kitsch highlight. Although limited, this Vasco experience of cocktails-to-patio did get my mind drifting to their Tuesday $14 lasagna night and ensconcing myself out back with a table of mates. I could even team it up with the 5-7pm Vasco hour and take shameless advantage of $14 cocktails, $8 ciders and $6 beers, wines and house spirits. It is also worth your while to keep an eye on the specials board, which features additional cocktails and the irresistible offer of a "Negroni made by an Italian". Wednesday is Apperitivo day (5-7pm), so drop by and enjoy snacks compliments of the kitchen to accompany your midweek drinks. Max's brother Claudio is heading up the kitchen six nights a week to bring you Italian fare — think arancini, salami and hotdogs ($12-$22). The main drawcard of this place, however, remains your hosts. Sure, drinking some of the best booze in town is a big tick, but sitting back while two grown men bumble through a card trick and collapse into a storm of amused cussing is a joy that money cannot buy. In the end, Vasco is a testament to what we can achieve when we do what we love — even if that is heavy drinking and other unhealthy obsessions. If you are a cocktail drinker who has so far put off the trip to Cleveland Street, rest assured that it is well worth any necessary travel, and for those of you in the Surry Hills-Redfern axis, do I need to repeat? Vasco hour is daily.
Perched above the Cartier flagship store on the corner of Pitt and King Streets in the CBD, JŌJI is a Japanese-inspired rooftop bar and diner that draws on the principles of Shibui, Wabi Sabi, and Datsuzoku, reflected in the venue's inventive cocktail menu and reimagined dishes. This dynamic concept offers a playful take on traditional flavours, promising an experience that evolves from tranquil afternoons to lively evenings. As night falls, the venue — which trades until 2am seven days a week — will showcase an array of entertainment, including live DJ performances and vinyl sessions, making JŌJI as much a nightlife hotspot as it is a go-to for knock-off sundowners. This generous space features a cocktail lounge, dining area and a panoramic terrace with views of Sydney's busy CBD. The interior is designed for various gatherings, from intimate dates to larger celebrations. Guests can immerse themselves in the Tokyo-esque atmosphere by sitting at the kitchen or bar counter, where they can interact with staff as they create drinks and dishes, or soak in the energy of the city while looking down on Sydney's black-label shopping district. The drinks menu honours tradition with a healthy dose of experimentation, including standout mingles such as the bamboo cocktail, which uniquely combines tequila, tomato, and apricot, alongside a classic whisky highball that reflects the elegant simplicity of Japan's favourite classic. Executive Chef Erik Ortolani has curated a menu that leans on sharing plates and features three sections: raw, not raw, and Robata. The centrepiece of the kitchen is a custom 2-metre charcoal grill, infusing the hot dishes with rich smoky flavours. Notable plates include the quail and pork jowl tsukune with shiitake koji and Kingfish served with umeboshi and yuzu kosho dressing. Desserts like mochi sorbet and purin provide a sweet finish, while a late-night menu features the JŌJI burger, a singular take on a crowd-pleaser made with Japanese wagyu bolognese. Architect Matt Darwon has crafted JŌJI's decor with a striking balance of bold metallic accents, deep burgundy tones and warm Tasmanian blackwoods, creating an inviting space that reflects the essence of the venue's modern Japanese influences. But the jewel in the crown of this bar and diner is its Sydney skyline views, offering a retreat where guests can unwind as they overlook the hustle and haste of the city streets below. Images: Jana Langhorst
The Darling Harbour outpost of global hotel chain Sofitel is set to unveil a new two-storey spa overlooking the water at the start of next year. Set to open in January, Sofitel Spa is billed as a holistic retreat in the heart of the city, featuring an array of wellness treatments and spa facilities. It will join Sydney's existing impressive supply of luxe spa experiences. The spa will feature seven spacious treatment rooms, including two serene suites with soft timbers, alongside sandstone and marble finishes. Other elements include an infrared sauna, a meditation zone and a relaxation deck that will sit on level four of the hotel. The spa will sit alongside the hotel's previously opened level four infinity pool. The pool is heated year-round and offers guests the ability to enjoy a dip while soaking in panoramic views of Darling Harbour and the Sydney CBD skyline. "We have designed our new day spa to nurture and empower guests in their wellness journey, assisting them in identifying their needs and gently guiding them in accomplishing their own goals, whether that relates to fitness, stillness of the mind, replenishment with nutrition or achieving glowing skin," Director of Spa and Wellness Cecilia Ferreyra says. "Our aim is to create bespoke journeys for each of our guests which means all treatments are tailor-made, so guests walk out feeling the full benefits of being in our care." Traditional treatments like massages, facials, body wraps and exfoliation will all be available alongside more holistic half-day experiences that combine exercise, healthy eating, a variety of treatments and introspection. French beauty brand Biologique Recherche and fast-rising Australian company Waterlily have been enlisted to provide the spa with its cosmetic treatment products, each of which will be personalised to any one guest's needs. Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour is located at 12 Darling Drive, Sydney. Sofitel Spa is set to open at the hotel in January 2023.
Stephen King's literary output contains multitudes. Horror, which the author has been best-known for since his 1974 debut Carrie, is just one genre on his bibliography. Accordingly, a life-affirming tale about the fact that we all also contain multitudes — Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself is naturally quoted — isn't a surprise from the writer. Filmmaker Mike Flanagan bringing King's novella The Life of Chuck to the big screen might've been less expected, though, if the director behind recent TV must-sees The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher wasn't again exploring characters not initially appreciating, then slowly dawning upon the fact, that the choices they're making aren't necessarily ones that are making them happy. Flanagan has adapted King's work before, first with 2017 film Gerald's Game, then with 2019 The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. Neither was a fantasy/drama that celebrates life's wonders and small joys — and just relishing existing for the time that we each have in general — however. That's The Life of Chuck through and through, with Flanagan's characteristically perceptive version of the King story that was first published in 2020 compilation If It Bleeds proving one of the most-heartwarming viewing experiences of 2025. Consider the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award-winner if not an antidote then a helpful reminder whenever minor annoyances blight your days: this picture understands that revelling in the delights, not the dramas, is a more-fulfilling mindset. Being a part of the film's cast was an instant yes for Karen Gillan (Douglas Is Cancelled), who initially starred in Oculus for Flanagan. The 2013 horror movie brought the Scottish actor to the US before playing Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and rolling the dice in the Jumanji franchise joined her resume. And yes, The Life of Chuck immediately stood out, she tells Concrete Playground. More than that, the picture's thoughtful examination of relishing tiny, everyday wins and treasures, and discovering what and who truly light up your life, is "such an interesting thing to dive into just as a human being," Gillan advises. "It's a great question to ask yourself." "I found myself asking myself this in preparation for the film, and after having watched the whole film. I asked myself 'how am I spending my precious time on this planet in the way that I want to?' and 'am I doing the things that make me truly happy?'. And 'if it were to all end tomorrow, what would I go and do that I've been too scared to do?'. And it was such an interesting way to reflect on how I'm living my life. So I just found it really moving on just a human level." [caption id="attachment_1017401" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Amy Sussman/Getty Images[/caption] In The Life of Chuck, Tom Hiddleston (Loki) portrays the titular character, as do Jacob Tremblay (Queen of Bones), Benjamin Pajak (Honeypot KK) and debutant Cody Flanagan at various stages, all as the flick steps through its namesake's existence in reverse. The movie begins as the end of days approaches, with society crumbling with it. Think: the internet disappearing forever, the sea enveloping cities, ordinary routines proving pointless and the hospital where Felicia Gordon, Gillan's character, works being inundated with those unsurprisingly unable to face the fast-ticking clock put on everything they know. Confusion reigns, including about a particular new development that Felicia's schoolteacher ex Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) also notices: TV and billboard advertisements filled with Charles Katz's image and thanking him for his "39 years of service", and radio ads as well. While there's nothing like being forced to confront your mortality to spark a reassessment of what's important in life, who matters, and how you want to spend the time that you have and direct your energy towards, that idea echoes in The Life of Chuck's following chapters, where nothing apocalyptic lingers in the narrative's timeline. And, it buzzes and hums in a movie that is anything but standard in digging into a concept that is no stranger to the screen. Spontaneously answering the call to dance, developing and embracing your passions, carving out time for life's pleasures where you can, treasuring your loved ones: in a picture also featuring Mark Hamill (The Sandman) as Chuck's grandmother and giving Ferris Bueller's Day Off great Mia Sara (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz) a rare screen part as his grandmother, these moments and realisations are essential. Everyone from Annalise Basso (Blind River), David Dastmalchian (Murderbot), Harvey Guillén (Companion) and Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy's) to experienced Flanagan cast members such as Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan and Carl Lumbly (all most recently in his The Fall of the House of Usher), plus also Violet McGraw (Doctor Sleep), similarly get their time to shine in The Life of Chuck. Gillan receiving hers also added to her parts beyond Guardians of the Galaxy and MCU fare — to a filmography already overflowing with them, of course, going back to her first on-screen role in Rebus; then to The Kevin Bishop Show, The Well, playing Amy Pond on Doctor Who and more in the UK; and also the Jumanji films, NTSF:SD:SUV, Selfie, 7 Days in Hell, In a Valley of Violence, Gunpowder Milkshake, Dual, Late Bloomers, her feature directorial debut The Party's Just Beginning and other titles since. It is indeed refreshing when Gillian isn't donning the Nebula makeup for a role. "I would say that the biggest difference is that I just kind of feel like I'm at the spa every morning when I'm not in the Nebula makeup. Because the Nebula makeup is intense. And it's so cool and it's so worth it, but they've got the scalpels and stuff. It's not one of those spa-like experiences. And then any other job, it just feels so luxurious in comparison," she shares. "So I love playing Nebula, but it is really nice to just have a normal face." We also spoke with Gillian about reteaming with Flanagan, playing someone trying to look after everyone else as the world disintegrates, fleshing out a complicated relationship alongside Ejiofor in their brief screentime together and The Life of Chuck as a source of inspiration — and also being a King fan starring in a King movie, swinging from big franchises to more-intimate projects and the film's feeling of quiet urgency, among other topics. On the Unique Prospect of a Film That Celebrates Life and Its Wonders, the Multitudes That We All Contain and Treasuring the Small Moments "The script completely stood out to me. So I've worked with Mike Flanagan before, on a movie called Oculus. He's actually the whole reason that I moved from Scotland to America. And so it was one of my first roles in Hollywood. So when I got the call for this project, I was ready to sign up having not even read the script because I was so excited about working with him again. And I love all the Stephen King adaptations that I've seen. So it was a bit of a no-brainer. But when I actually read this script, it was like 'this is like nothing else I've ever read before'. It's so unique — even just the structure of it. It's told in reverse and the whole first chapter is the end of everything, and then you learn that that's all a metaphor for one man's life, Chuck. And it was just such a beautiful exploration into an ordinary man's life, and really focusing on those smaller moments that don't usually get screentime in movies — and showing the beauty of those moments." On What Excited Gillan About Stepping Into Felicia's Shoes "There were so many things about the character that I thought was really interesting. I really was intrigued by the fact that she had taken on this caretaker position in everyone's lives around her. And I kind of filled in a whole backstory as to why that would be the case — because it's not really explored so much in the short story or the film. But it was a really interesting character to dive into, because she's this real caretaker-type, and you can see that in her relationship with her ex-husband Marty. But then we throw her into the end of the universe, the end of everything, and you can just see how much she's still trying to fulfil that position and keep everybody going — and maintain optimism when everyone is just giving up around her. And I thought that was such a beautiful character trait." On Fleshing Out a Complicated Relationship Alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor in Their Brief Amount of Screentime Together "We didn't actually do so much reading the scenes with each other or anything like that. We just spoke and had conversations, and we did that both separately with Mike Flanagan to really flesh out characters and backstories, and then talked together. But the first thing that we ever shot together was the long phone call scene, and it was his side of the phone. So we made sure that we were present for each other — and so I hid in a bedroom upstairs and would just call him on the phone, and then we would film his side of the scene. So I was just in some random person's bed in the house, no one else was there in the house that we were in, just kind of talking to him on the phone. And that brought such a sense of authenticity to the whole thing. And then he did the same thing for me when I filmed my side of the conversation. What was nice about that was having not done it over and over again prior to that — like, the first time he properly heard that scene would have been through the telephone." On If a Film About Life's Quiet Wonders and Being the Centre of Your Own Universe Gets You Thinking About Those Ideas in Your Own Life "Yeah, it's so true. And this film really reminded me of that. And I found myself being really filled with gratitude for all the little things that sometimes you can take for granted. And yeah, I think honestly, it was just such an existential experience watching the film when it was all finished. I came away from it crying, but they were happy tears. And I just think that's so rare that film does that to its audience." On the Film's Tonal Balance — Proving Heartfelt and Sweet, But Also Clear-Eyed About the Truth That Life Is Fragile and We're All Only Here for a Short Amount of Time "I think you just have to trust Mike. He has it. And all I really tend to do is just try to approach each scene from the most-truthful place possible — and ask myself the question 'how would I genuinely feel if this was happening?'. And then what I do is I think of a time when I genuinely felt that emotion, and try to access it so that I don't really have to act — if that makes any sense — because I'm generally feeling something. And that's all I'm focused on. I'm not necessarily like 'how does this fit into the bigger picture?'. I think that, for me, is the director's job, and I'm just there to bring some authenticity and to genuinely feel things." On Starring in a Stephen King Adaptation When The Shining Is One of Your Favourite Films "I know — a non-horror one, which feels even more rare and unique. It was just mindbending. I'm like 'what? I'm in a Stephen King thing?'. That just seems like, to me, as big as it gets. And actually he loved the film, which was so cool — because I know that he wasn't a fan of The Shining, and he loved The Life of Chuck. And I got to meet him, and he came and supported the film, and came to the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival — and I met him and I was pregnant, and he told me to have a good one, and I'm never going to forget that." On the History Among the Cast and Crew of The Life of Chuck — and Not Just Gillan and Mike Flanagan's History Together "So I had such a good time on Oculus. Really, that's one of the best experiences I've ever had on a film. And then I found myself really wanting to have that experience again. Because I visited set, I visited Mike when he was filming The Haunting of Hill House, the series. And I was looking around and I saw all the same crew members as Oculus, and I was like 'I want to do this again'. And I was like 'put me in something'. And then he did. And it's The Life of Chuck. And it was just so great to reteam with him and see how he's evolved, and actually how he's exactly the same — which is mainly how I experienced it. He hasn't changed that much, even though his career has gone into the stratosphere. He's still the same old Mike. But he has evolved in ways as a filmmaker, and that's really cool to see. I just loved it. I had the best time." On the Ease That Comes with Repeat Director Collaborations "Definitely. It's just like any person that works with a new colleague or one that they've got a shorthand with. It's exactly that. You sort of have to feel each other, figure out each other's rhythms a little bit, get on the same frequency — and it's just so nice when you don't have to do that introductory period every single time. You can just dive back in. Some of the directors I've worked with have very distinctive ways of working, and sometimes you have to recalibrate and be like 'okay, so this director likes to give notes over a giant megaphone thing. This one is going to want me to improvise. This one's going to want me to stick to the script'. And so it's nice to just know what you're getting into again. And also they know how you work and can get the best out of you — because the best directors, in my opinion, are different directors to each actor, because each person needs something slightly different. And so it's nice when they really understand how I work as an actor." On the Impact That Working with Flanagan the First Time on Oculus Had on Gillan's Career "It really did bring me over to the States. It literally got me a visa to be able to stay in the States, which meant I was available for auditions and that's how I managed to have a career over in the States. So it just kickstarted everything for me. And it was a massive challenge for me as an actor to lead a film. I was young at the time and it was quite a demanding role. And so that made me have to level up and up my game. And so for my development as an actor, it really helped me get a lot better." [caption id="attachment_888782" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.[/caption] On Being Able to Swing Between Big Franchises Such as Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Plus the Jumanji Films, and More-Intimate Projects "That just feels like such a treat as an actress. I'm like 'that's so great to not be completely pigeonholed, and to get to do projects of all different sizes and genres'. I mean, that's my dream. I would hate to be bound by typecasting or anything like that. [caption id="attachment_756013" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jumanji: The Next Level[/caption] I think I'm just looking for great characters and great stories, and it truly doesn't matter if it's a $200-million film or $200,000 film. It's like 'I don't care'. It's about making good cinema at the end of the day, and I just feel really lucky that I've had a variety of experiences." On If You Tap Into Something in Particular to Bring The Life of Chuck's Feeling of Quiet Urgency — That Life Needs to Be Lived Urgently to Be Lived Fully — to the Screen "I would say so. I was definitely asking myself questions about how I'm living my life. And I started to have these visuals — like, 'imagine if I just had an hourglass with the sand falling through it for my whole life, what level of the sand would it be at?'. And it's something so wild to think that it's constantly dwindling away. And you kind of forget that as you go about your day to day, and you think 'oh, that's not going to happen to me' and 'that's never coming' — but it is. None of us are getting out of this. And so, yeah, I think it's first of all really important to remember from time to time in your life. And I really had to think about that in terms of the character and what she would do in the moments where she knew that those were her last. Who does she want to reach out to? And I think what I learned is so much of the stuff that we focus on in our lives would just fall away in those final moments. Like, we think we focus on accolades, achievements, money — and none of that matters at the end of it all. What matters is being around the people that you love and love you. And that's definitely what I've found in the character." The Life of Chuck opened in Australia cinemas on Thursday, August 14, 2025 and in New Zealand cinemas from Thursday, July 31, 2025.
Merivale will be embracing the Queen's Birthday this long weekend with parties fit for royalty across two of its venues, to celebrate the exclusive launch of Beefeater PINK in Australia. Head to Enmore, Friday, June 8 through Monday, June 11 to indulge in Beefeater PINK cocktails at Queens Hotel. There's the Royal Fizz, a blend of Beefeater PINK, Lillet Rosé and tonic, and the Beefeater Marteani, served in a teacup (just as Queenie likes it) and garnished with rosemary. Next, settle in for on-site Cantonese restaurant Queen Chow's Her Royal High Tea, where you can feast on pink lobster dumplings with tobiko and gold flakes and red rice rolls with prawn and crispy beancurd. There's also The Peking and The Queen, a signature take on the classic roast dinner, featuring Imperial Peking Duck. Providing the soundtrack while you tuck in will be DJs Polographia and Shantan Wantan Ichiban. The Vic on The Park will also be getting involved in the festivities serving up the Beefeater PINK cocktails alongside a more traditional British menu including roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, Devonshire tea soft serve and Vic Lane snacks (the Vic's take on the subcontinental food of London's famous Brick Lane). DJ sets by Luen Jacobs and World Champion DJs plus live graffiti art on classic British cars will provide the entertainment while you feast. Find more information on the long weekend celebrations and make a booking here.
Winter is coming, and that means a few important things are on their way. Firstly, and most obviously, Game of Thrones is starting to get pretty epic. We're definitely getting accustomed to staying in with a bottle of red and forgoing nights out in favour of some medieval carnage. But secondly, our ski slopes are hitting their prime. The time for snow gear is fast approaching and Concrete Playground is here to get you sorted. If our nights in are complemented by a bottle of red, our time on the slopes is inevitably coupled with three beverages: hot chocolate, mulled wine and warm cider. Fittingly, the latter is getting involved with the physical activities. Rekorderlig — the Swedish champions behind this apple and cinnamon bliss — have made you a custom snowboard this season, and we have one to give away. This special creation, which ordinarily retails for $330.50, is in a traditional shape with a rounded nose and tail. It offers traditional and zero camber options, extended carbon pop rods, a wood core, and a wide-centred stance that works for riders of all sizes and abilities. We know winter can be a bit of a drag, but this is your best bet to make the most of it — outside of boozy TV marathons that is. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
Aunty Donna's approach to their career and to comedy boast more than a little in common. Think about either, and it also brings a recent movie title to mind. Beloved for their absurdist mile-a-minute humour, the Australian group recent loaned their voices to Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, but it's the name of 2023's big Oscar-winner that seems to sum up their whole ethos: Everything Everywhere All At Once. Zachary Ruane, Mark Samual Bonanno and Broden Kelly aren't in that film; however, they have been touring, making a Netflix series, and releasing Aunty Donna's $30 bottle of wine and an Always Room for Christmas Pud picture book all in just the past few years. And, they've now returned to the ABC nine years after a Fresh Blood iView stint in 2014, this time with six-part sitcom Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe. For fans watching on, Aunty Donna's jam-packed recent slate has felt like a whirlwind. Chatting to Concrete Playground about the release of Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe — which is now streaming in full on ABC iView, and also airs weekly on ABC TV — Ruane goes one better, while also noting how much hustle it took to get the now world-famous comedy troupe to this point. "I think the last ten years for us at least have felt like a whirlwind. In a way, it feels like we've slowed down in the last couple of years, even though everything's a bit more in the public. We used to tour a lot more than we do now. We used to make a lot of content for online, possibly more than we do now," Ruane advises. "So even though there's heaps happening and it's nice to be reminded, it actually in some ways feels like we've slowed it down a bit, which gives you an indication of what the last ten years have been like for us." Aunty Donna formed in 2011, then took their first live show to the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They haven't stopped inciting laughs since. Anywhere they can possibly spread their wild, weird and wonderful brand of comedy, they have — a lengthy list of stage shows all around the world, their YouTube channel, a podcast, two albums, multiple webseries, pilots, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, that book, the vino and now Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe included. The latter sprang after their Netflix success, and from Ruane, Bonanno and Kelly's eagerness to try the sitcom format. The end result: a workplace comedy skewering cafe culture, specifically Melbourne's caffeine-sipping scene, with an Aunty Donna spin. When it comes to satirising its setting and anything even tangentially connected — kidulting bars, cereal cafes, awful bosses and terrible landlords, for instance — the gags and bits keep coming. So too does Aunty Donna's beloved grab-bag approach, giving a show about working in a cafe an entire episode about a court case with Richard Roxburgh (Elvis) reprising his role from Rake, then a real-estate agent parody featuring Looking for Alibrandi's Pia Miranda, plus yet another instalment making fun of the very platform that Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe streams on. "We just went for it. We definitely caused a few headaches for our director Max [Miller, a fellow Aunty Donna member] with some of our setups," Ruane explains. Scoring a second show, being self-described "Melbourne wankers", getting nervous performing with Miranda, what comes next: Ruane told us about all of that, too — plus the dream of making an Aunty Donna movie. ON HOW AUNTY DONNA'S COFFEE CAFE COME ABOUT "It's our second longer-form thing, and I think we always knew that we wanted to keep pushing ourselves. Every time we come to a new platform or do a new thing, we want to it a little bit differently. We were really keen to do something a bit more narrative-focused, a bit more in that traditional sitcom structure. So that was the goal for us. I don't know how much that will read to an audience. Maybe it will all read as our crazy stuff, and in the same lineage of everything we do. But we wanted to challenge ourselves to make it a little more like a traditional sitcom, at least structurally, but still be as crazy and wild as what we've always done." ON COMING UP WITH THE CONCEPT — AND NOT JUST THANKS TO 'MORNING BROWN' "'Morning Brown', it's more of a nod to that song. We play around with different things, but we've always found that the things that we do that resonate the most are when there's a sort of a — I call it a sandbox, but there's a setting that resonates with people that I think people have an emotional connection to and understanding of. When we have that kind of setting that resonates, it allows us to go more crazy, more absurd. So, we've done it with the YouTube and our live shows. There's 1999, which was a webseries which is set in an office in 1999. We also did Glennridge Secondary College, which is a live show and a webseries set in a high school. I think we find whenever it's set somewhere recognisable and accessible, it actually allows us to go weirder and crazier and more absurd because people have a hook in. So we were looking for something like that — something that people would recognise, feel comfortable in, but then would also allow us to go in any direction we wanted." ON SKEWERING CAFE CULTURE "One thing we wanted to avoid going into — there's a territory of cliches in that space. We had to keep reminding ourselves to not just do the cafe stuff and the coffee culture stuff. But we've worked in hospitality, we're all Melbourne wankers, we've been customers at these cafes. It just feels so ripe, and it feels like the kind of thing you can pull from multiple different experiences. You can go into the kitchen and do a whole episode there. You can just focus on the staff, do a whole episode there. That's what we loved about the idea." ON MAKING A WORKPLACE COMEDY "It's really interesting. We've done other things set in workplaces, but also found it in the school one as well — there's something about a workplace where very different personality types and very different things can happen. I think also what we really loved about the cafe compared to our last series, which was set in a house: it's really hard to get people from the outside world into the house. We love to play lots of different characters, and it's really hard to get weird characters to come through the door. With a cafe, that's exactly what it is. Structurally, it's all a cavalcade of people coming through the door. Anyone you can envision, you just imagine them wanting to get a coffee and they're there in your world. That was the best part about it." ON GETTING GUEST STARS LIKE RICHARD ROXBURGH AND PIA MIRANDA "We were expecting Roxburgh to be a firm no. And not only that, we had to get so many layers of approval to get that joke in. I remember when it was floated, it was like 'oh, that's fun but it will never happen'. Because we had to get the creator of Rake onboard. We had to get ABC to sign off on it. We had to get Roxburgh to sign off on the character and then to want to do it — and then to be available to do it. Which is like, there are so many barriers here, it's not going to happen. We'd already started thinking of alternative jokes to him. Then I remember we were in the writers room and each day we'd get another person who'd said yes to it, we just kept getting this run of emails, and then when he was available to do it. We did not expect it to happen. Which I think made it more fun, because I don't think we put too much thought into it — we just wrote this stupid joke and were like 'surely he'll say no and then we'll figure something else out'. So it was very amazing that he said yes. I mean, same with Pia Miranda. I think I was more nervous performing with Pia Miranda than I was with Roxburgh. I had to act opposite her — that's crazy! Intimidatingly, she doesn't look like she's aged a day since [Looking for Alibrandi]. So it's like, I feel like I've been teleported. I'm like 'am I Kick Gurry right now?'. It was very cool." ON MAKING FUN OF THE ABC ON THE ABC "Insanely, they were so chill. It was funny how much. They were like 'you can tease us more if you want'. And we were like 'we'll see'. They were so up for it. I definitely thought we had pushed it too far with iView, because we really go at the platform. We thought they'll come back with 'you can make a bit of a joke but maybe not about technical issues'. But they were just like 'haha, yeah'." ON RUANE'S FAVOURITE AUNTY DONNA PROJECT SO FAR "It's hard to say. I mean, I was super proud of the picture book. It was one of those things that we had to keep explaining to people that we saw it as a little piece in its own right and it wasn't just a merch cash in. It was really fun to just do something completely different and to just discover a different world, and play around in a different space — and just to get people who really got the joke. I had such a specific vision in my mind of an early 90-style of Australian picture book — and to have it come out looking like that was pretty special. So that's, of the recent stuff, probably the thing I'm most proud of. But then I also love crazy stuff. Like I think $30 Bottle of Wine, which is a video on our YouTube that goes for about eight minutes and it's just repulsive, that's probably my favourite still." [caption id="attachment_791048" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, Netflix.[/caption] ON THE ORIGINAL AUNTY DONNA DREAM — AND LIVING IT NOW "I think it's always evolving and always changing. To be honest, in a really real way, I feel like it has surpassed so many of the original dreams and goals years ago. Very early on, I would've been perfectly happy if it was my full job — that became the goal really early in my twenties. If I can be entertaining people or doing something like this as my full-time job, that would be enough. To have hit that, and then had all these other things happen — we've got an ABC show, Wednesday night, that was the dream as a teenager for sure. That's what I grew up watching. To have had another show seen around the world. We've got a world tour coming up. So many of these things weren't even in the dream, weren't even a part of the picture. So to have achieved it, it's really cool and lovely and so — people say humbling, but it's the opposite. It's not that, it's cool and amazing." ON WHAT COMES NEXT FOR AUNTY DONNA "It's always about the creative, and always about doing new things. I don't think it's about [doing] more or [moving] up — I think it's just about different ways. If we can find different ways to make people laugh and to bring joy, then that's for me what it is. So who knows? Maybe it's a video game, maybe it's a board game, maybe it's more TV, maybe it's more YouTube — there's so many options, and I'm excited to just see where it goes." ON MAKING AN AUNTY DONNA MOVIE "How we would do it and how we would go about it is such a big question, but that's definitely on the list as something that I'd love to do. Our big one was that we always wanted to do like The Rugrats Movie, just a real crazy adventure. Yeah, we would love to do something like that for sure." Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe streams via ABC iView, and also screens weekly on the ABC at 9pm from Wednesday, April 12. Read our full review. Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe images: Richard Lowe / Jackson Flinter / ABC.
Prepare to stare at the moon in all of its glory — up close, without a telescope and without zooming into space. Measuring seven metres in diameter and featuring renderings of the celestial body's surface based on NASA imagery, the Museum of the Moon is a detailed installation by UK-based artist Luke Jerram. The giant sculpture has been touring the world since 2016, displaying in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai and plenty of spots around Europe. From June 29, 2019 it'll add Sydney to its orbit. The looming artwork recreates the moon at a scale of approximately 1:500,000, with each centimetre equating to five kilometres of the lunar surface. And if you're wondering just how intricate the 120dpi imagery is, the high-resolution NASA photograph that it uses is 21 metres wide, and was taken by by a satellite carrying the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. The spherical sculpture is lit from within, so it'll add a glow when it comes to the Powerhouse Museum. It also combines its imagery and light with a surround sound piece created by composer and sound designer Dan Jones, and just how each venue displays it is up to them. Basically, it's never the exact same installation twice. [caption id="attachment_716830" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Neil James.[/caption] Its stint at the Powerhouse Museum will mark the Museum of the Moon's third visit Australia, following 12-day showing on the Gold Coast and a five-month stint at Melbourne's Scienceworks. And the floating sculpture won't be the only celestial fun happening in Sydney either. The giant moon is heading to the Powerhouse Museum as part of a 200-item exhibition dubbed Apollo 11, marking the 50th anniversary of the famed moon landing. Other objects you'll find throughout the exhibition include parts of the original Redstone Rocket and Parkes Radio Telescope, as well as a computer used by NASA to calculate the launch and landing. There'll be more immersive and interactive events happening, too, including a virtual reality experience in which you watch the moon landing, an interactive arcade game, tours of the observatory and a heap of talks by astronauts and astronomers. Museum of the Moon comes to Sydney's Powerhouse Museum as part of Apollo 11 from June 29, 2019.
2025 is a shaping up to be a big year for Netflix finales — and it will end that way, too. First, Squid Game is coming to a conclusion in June 2025. Then, Stranger Things will begin following suit with its fifth and last season. You'll be tuning in not once, not twice, but three times for this farewell trip to Hawkins, Indiana, however — starting in November 2025, then checking in again twice in December this year. Those specific dates: Wednesday, November 26 for the first four-episode volume of season five, then Thursday, December 25 for its second three-chapter volume, followed by Wednesday, December 31 for the finale. Netflix locked in the release schedule as part of a date-announcement video which also provides an initial glimpse at how everything will wrap up. Included in the clip: looks backwards at the tale that Stranger Things has told so far, which means peering at how young the cast was when the show premiered in 2016. From what's to come, comas, bedside vigils, the military, exploring via torchlight, shaking floors and a key piece of advice — "run" — all feature. Season five makes finding and killing Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower, Emmanuelle) its main aim, all while the town has been placed under quarantine and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown, The Electric State) has been forced into hiding We know already that the year is 1987 and the time is autumn, jumping forward from the fourth season's spring 1986 timing. We're also aware that one way or another, the residents of Hawkins that viewers know and love will have their last experience with the eeriness that's been plaguing their town for years. That's the promise that accompanies saying goodbye to Stranger Things, of course, even if the hit Netflix show's end won't be it for the franchise's broader universe. If it feels like there's been a lengthy wait for more — even with the series no stranger to long delays between seasons — that's because there has been. When November rolls around, it will have been almost three-and-a-half years since season four, a gap extended due to 2023's Hollywood strikes. Before that, just under three years elapsed between seasons three and four, and just under two between the second and third seasons. The 13-month gap between seasons one and two seems positively short, then. Late in 2024, Netflix revealed the titles of Stranger Things' eight season-five episodes. If you feel like obsessing over the monikers for clues, you've had eight hints for a while, then. The season will kick off with 'The Crawl', then deliver 'The Vanishing of ...', 'The Turnbow Trap' and 'Sorcerer'. Next comes 'Shock Jock', 'Escape From Camazotz' and 'The Bridge', before it all ends with the enticingly named 'The Rightside Up'. Fans also already know that this season features Terminator franchise icon Linda Hamilton, jumping from one sci-fi hit to another. Season five brings back all of the usual faces, too — so, alongside Brown and Bower, Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), David Harbour (Thunderbolts*), Finn Wolfhard (Saturday Night), Gaten Matarazzo (Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain), Caleb McLaughlin (The Deliverance), Noah Schnapp (The Tutor), Sadie Sink (O'Dessa), Natalia Dyer (All Fun and Games), Charlie Heaton (The Souvenir: Part II), Joe Keery (Fargo), Maya Hawke (Inside Out 2), Priah Ferguson (The Curse of Bridge Hollow), Brett Gelman (Lady in the Lake) and Cara Buono (Things Like This). As for more Stranger Things-related antics after season five, when creators Matt and Ross Duffer revealed that their sci-fi show was working towards its endgame back in 2022, they also said that they had more stories to tell in this fictional realm. Instantly, we all knew what that meant. Netflix doesn't like letting go of its hits easily, after all, so the quest to find a way to keep wandering through this franchise was about as surprising as Jim Hopper's (Harbour) usual gruff mood. Check out the date-announcement video for Stranger Things season five below: Stranger Things season five will arrive in three parts, on Wednesday, November 26, Thursday, December 25 and Wednesday, December 31, 2025. You can stream the first four seasons now via Netflix — and read our review of season four. Images: Netflix.
What was once a wartime torpedo factory and submarine base is now Sydney's newest playground and public space. Located on the harbour between Kirribilli and Kurraba Point in North Sydney, HMAS Platypus is a former submarine base that hasn't been open to the public in over 150 years. Now, the space has been transformed into Sub Base Platypus, a massive new foreshore walkway and parkland — and it's now open to the masses. The historic north shore site sits on Cammeraygal land and was once a gasworks facility for the region. As part of the war effort, the site became a torpedo factory in 1942 and later commissioned as the navy's submarine base in 1967 — named HMAS Platypus — which then closed back in 1998. What was once the submarine wharf has been rebuilt into an elevated water walkway that links the site to Kesterton Park (via Kiara Close) and theNorth Sydney Ferry Wharf. Alongside the water walkway is a recreation and barbecue area, plus a new submarine-themed playground. As a tribute to the site's history, the playground includes a model Oberon Submarine and periscopes, built by the Harbour Trust's Volunteer Restoration Team, which consists of over 50 volunteers with expertise in engineering, carpentry and electrical work. Stage one opened in May 2018, with further redevelopment and long-term upgrades planned for the site over the next three years. It is eventually planned to become a large-scale waterfront park, with the government having already invested nearly $70 million in the project. The second stage of Sub Base Platypus will include a mix of open areas and parkland, with the addition of plazas, courtyards and flexible re-use spaces. The former submarine workshop structures will soon be leased out as well, with tenants expected onsite throughout 2019. Updated: June 24, 2018.
Hannah Carroll Harris and Lauren Carroll Harris's exhibition Into Thin Air looks at all things dystopian, artworks that are alive (but not in a freaky mad scientist kind of way) and landscapes that grow (a little different from a terrarium). And yes, some of the works do indeed look like things that have just up and vanished into thin air. Of the duo, Hannah looks at making artworks that grow and evolve as the exhibition progresses. Woven algae on looms, crystals that transform, and other bits and pieces. Lauren, on the other hand, looks at three-dimensional landscapes made from non-natural materials that have a dystopian feel. Her work Glaciers/Ghosts -Into Thin Air #1 is an eerie piece that reflects on how humans have impacted the environment around them. The show presents a vision of nature in decline. These sculptures and installations will be showing at the duo's own publishing and gallery space, an ARI aptly named called Archive Space. So, naturally, there's a little publication to go with the exhibit. This project has benefited from funding courtesy of Arc @ UNSW Limited, and a residency at Dark Tea Time of the Soul, Cumnock, NSW.
This summer, two Sydney hospitality icons will find a new home at Barangaroo's glitziest address. Beloved dim sum institution Golden Century, which closed its doors in 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns much to the shock of its many fans, is set to be permanently revived at Crown Towers while the nation's most Instagram'd restaurant, Bondi Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, will have a pop-up residency. Since opening in late 2020, Crown Towers has established itself as a world-class dining destination, in addition to boasting five-star quality hotel rooms and suites, and residential apartments, all housed in the now-iconic architectural feat that ranks as the tallest building in the Sydney skyline. Golden Century and Icebergs will join a list of nine signature restaurants at Crown Towers in the biggest shake-up to the hotel's food and beverage offering since its opening. [caption id="attachment_982210" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The Wong Family, owners of Golden Century, and Icebergs owner Maurice Terzini.[/caption] "Crown Sydney is already a beacon of hospitality in this beloved city, so it feels natural to add to our repertoire two renowned offerings from Sydney itself," says Crown Sydney Chief Executive Officer, Stanford Le. Golden Century will be moving into the third level of Crown Towers in early 2025 drawing on its three-decades of history as one of Sydney's most popular Chinese eateries and dim sum go-tos. In tribute to their original menu, Golden Century will be bringing back its signature classics like XO pippies, live lobster cooked two ways and the abalone steamboat, along with other fan favourite dishes like peking duck, salt and pepper squid and a yum cha lunch offering at weekends. Billy Wong, co-owner of Golden Century and the still-operating XOPP in Darling Square, said of the opening: "We feel that we have a great synergy with Crown's approach to hospitality — focusing on quality and the guest experience, making them feel welcome and at home. Golden Century is where it all began and we are excited to once again welcome in our loyal customers, serving our beloved Cantonese classics in a picture-perfect location that overlooks Sydney harbour and beyond." [caption id="attachment_742982" align="alignnone" width="1920"] XOPP[/caption] The Icebergs Harbour Bar residency will begin in December, welcoming guests all day to an elevated, Euro-Australian version of the OG Bondi bar experience. Diners can expect Icebergs Bar dining favourites such as the Iceburger, fried school prawns with aioli and lime and signature cocktails like the No. 147 with Ketel One vodka, coconut, passionfruit, pineapple, lemon and aromatic bitters. "I have always had a love affair with great hotel bars; they're transient and fun and you never know who you're going to meet," says renowned restaurateur Maurice Terzini, co-owner of Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. "This evolution of the Iceberg's Bar will bring classic drinks and our signature bar food offering to Crown Sydney, matching the already decadent and luxurious guest experience." [caption id="attachment_776713" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Icebergs Harbour Bar at Bondai Beach.[/caption] "We are thrilled to become the new home of the iconic Golden Century, offering our guests an experience that is at once nostalgic and exciting, and to partner with Icebergs for a summer residency of their bar experience, bringing their Bondi expertise to the harbourside," says Le. Icebergs Harbour Bar will be open seven days a week and will be available for walk-ins. Reservations for Golden Century will open to the public in December. Find Crown Sydney at 1 Barangaroo Ave, NSW.
If you're going to break a sweat, you might as well look damn good while doing it, right? Luxury brand Hermès agrees, of course, so it's hosting a super stylish pop-up gym at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion this weekend. From Friday, October 14–Sunday, October 16, HermèsFit invites fashionable fitness fiends to take part in the best-accessorised workout of their lives. While the pop-up's program of group workout classes has already been booked out solid, there are still plenty of other treats to check out during its stay. The chic space — decked out in the brand's signature orange hues — features a weights wall stacked with custom Hermès barbells, a juice bar, a boxing ring that doubles as a photobooth and even a round ping pong table where you can challenge your mates to a game. And chic statement accessories will be on show everywhere you look. What's more, HermèsFit is hosting a slew of after-hours fun across the weekend, with that central boxing ring transformed into a stage for free sets from the likes of Cub Sport, Dijok, Boy Soda and 1300. They'll kick off at 7pm on Friday, and from 5pm on the weekend. Images: Wes Nel
