The best things to do in Sydney in June

Picture this: you’re nestled in a cosy private igloo decked out with fairy lights, gazing over Sydney’s breathtaking city skyline. A raclette grill awaits you at your table, while French waiters bring you mugs of spiced mulled wine. Beside your igloo, a warming fire pit beckons, complete with marshmallows just waiting to be toasted.  This is Raclette Igloo Experience, a new French foodie experience bringing the charm of a French ski resort atmosphere to Broadway Sydney Rooftop from June 29 to July 28.   Gather your pals or the whole family to enjoy the intimacy of your very own private igloo and get ready to make some memories. Each igloo can fit six to eight people but don’t worry, there’s enough cheese to go around – we’re talking 200g per person, imported directly from France. This French tradition involves melting raclette to perfection under a grill. Whether you prefer it gooey or with a golden crust, scrape it on top of cheese-friendly sides including potatoes, pickles and charcuterie and savour every mouthful. Once you've had your fill, head out to do some stargazing or gather around your very own fire pit to share some stories. You’ll find plenty of wood to stoke the fire and one skewer per person filled with giant marshmallows. From the moment you walk through the falling snow at the entrance, every bit of this authentic experience is sure to be a winter fairytale, complete with magical lights, chalet vibes and a unique French dining experience. Prices start from $99

Sydney is one of the best cities to escape to in winter, and this year is a particular good time to visit. With a new wintery wonderland popping up this June, you have one more reason to get rugged up and out the door.  Landing in the heart of the CBD, Firepit Garden is taking over World Square, an open-air shopping and dining block that connects George, Liverpool and Pitt Street. Featuring ten fire pits, this event is free to enter and visitors can even snag a glass of mulled wine or toast some complimentary marshmallows. Head down on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening and you can kick back while enjoying free musical perfomances on the violin, piano or acoustic guitar.  Come hungry and order up a meal from one of the nearby restaurants including Gami Chicken, Minus 7, The Gardens World Square and more. All you need to do is simply scan the nearest QR codes, wait for it to be delivered to your table and tuck in. Stop by from June 15 to July 7 on Tuesday to Sundays, between 11am and 8pm (with extended hours until 9pm on Thursdays).  In addition to the Firepit Garden, World Square is hosting Wellness Weekends from June 22, featuring three weekends packed with enticing beauty and health deals. Once you’ve warmed up with a feed and a marshmallow (or two), join in on free activities by the fire including yoga, or treat yourself to a massage, skincare treatment and more. That’s all we know for now, but keep an eye on the website for more details, which you can find here.

If you had asked me what I thought the next canonical Australian text would be before I watched Trophy Boys, I certainly wouldn’t have pegged a play that features a sign boldly emblazoned with the words “Feminism has failed women” set against a backdrop of portraits of “powerful women leaders”. (Jacinda Ardern, Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Youzafi and Grace Tame are accounted for, to name a few.) And yet, with this hilariously profound production, Trophy Boys proves that a provocative and unexpected approach can pay off handsomely.  We are introduced to a gang of four private school boys from the fictional Saint Imperium College as they strut into a classroom with the kind of boisterous raucousness that can only come from teenage boys. However, these aren’t your average young men – this queer black comedy features an all-women and non-binary cast serving masculine drag.  Trophy Boys is a masterful play that I hope we will continue to see not only in theatres, but in future school curricula. Trophy Boys makes its Sydney debut after receiving rave reviews in Melbourne for three years running, and it's an overdue homecoming of sorts for playwright Emmanuelle Mattana, who was inspired by spending their adolescence working their way through Sydney’s competitive debating scene (which is a very real thing, we’re told). It is a world that director Marni Mount is also intimately familiar with. Over a tight 70-minute runtime, we witness the boys prepare to go toe-to-toe with

Winter is well and truly here, and if you’re keen to embrace festive energy in Sydney, you don’t need to look too far. Just across the bridge in North Sydney, a very wintery fiesta is going down for one magical week – complete with 50 tonnes of real snow. Yes, you’re reading that right. Kicking off on Saturday, June 19, the Greenwood’s Snow Week will see the sprawling North Sydney venue transformed into a winter wonderland – with a program of seasonal events to keep transport us into (even) colder climbs. The launch of the festivities will coincide with Canada Day – a poutine-fuelled affair featuring a round of Canadian trivia and DJs spinning Canadian-inspired tunes – followed by a soul music session on the Sunday and a very wintery snow-themed bingo on the Monday, hosted by Sydney sweetheart Prada Clutch. Other events popping up throughout the week include a No Swipes dating event, a fire and ice-themed party on the Thursday night and a charity social to close out the week. Visitors will also go in the running to win a heap of delightfully snow-themed prizes, including a snowboard and a $1,000 voucher for snow gear brand Elevation107.Keen to get involved in the cold? You can learn more over here. Want to be the first to know about what's on in Sydney? Sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter, delivered direct to your inbox. RECOMMENDED:  Want more winter fun? You can eat oozy melted raclette in a private rooftop igloo.Or head to Canberra for this huge Xmas in July fe

This is it, we have found the yassification of Shakespeare. Fuelled by a playlist of certified pop hits, this jukebox romp billed as “the greatest love story ever remixed” poses a simple but provocative question: What if, instead of joining Romeo in eternal slumber, Juliet decided to live? A contagiously joyous musical spectacular, & Juliet has finally landed at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre after being met with critical acclaim on Broadway and the West End, not to mention the rapturously received Australian debut in Melbourne.  Filled with sing-a-long-able chart-topping bangers made famous by the likes of Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and more from the songbook of Grammy-winning Swedish songwriter/producer Max Martin, the Aussie cast is overflowing with talent in this feel-good, flashy production. & Juliet is Shakespeare remixed for the girls, the gays and the theys... [but does it] really cut it as the feminist reclamation that we are promised? Will you be entertained? Absolutely. Does & Juliet set a new standard for jukebox musicals? Yes. Will you see one of the most diverse and charismatic casts of triple-threats ever assembled on an Australian stage? Heck yeah. Does the story deliver on the feminist retribution we are promised? Not quite. “What if Juliet didn’t kill herself?” Anne Hathaway (played by the enthralling Amy Lehpamer) posits to her husband, William Shakespeare (the ever-charming Rob Mills). “She’s only ever had one boyfriend, and frankly, the endi

From the iconic initial beats of “Pop, Six, Squish…” to the flash and flummox of lines like “Give 'em the old razzle dazzle” – the sassy, sleazy charm of Chicago is undeniable. Kander and Ebb’s 1975 mega-hit is one of those shows that has become part of the fabric of our collective culture, a timeless call-back for anyone who has ever struck a pose on a rickety chair while wearing an imaginary bowler hat, or day-dreamed a (strictly imaginary) bloody revenge fantasy, and all that jazz.  Australia’s latest tour of this jazz-era spectacle of seductive murderesses, greed, corruption and the fickle nature of tabloid infamy struts into Sydney’s lush Capitol Theatre after doing time in Perth and Melbourne. Under the direction of Karen Johnson Mortimer, this staging of Walter Bobbie’s six-time Tony-Award-winning, stripped-back 1996 Broadway revival (the second-longest running show on Broadway) comes a mere six years after it toured Down Under in 2019. Producers Crossroads Live presumably made a safe bet that this show is a surefire seat-filler (and they’d be right). Or, as one pinstripe-wearing Billy Flynn might say: “Give ‘em an act with lots of flash in it, and the reaction will be passionate…” But with the memory of Casey Donovan’s brilliant performance as Matron Mama Morton and Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s delightfully deranged Roxie Hart being so fresh for Aussie theatregoers, many die-hard musical theatre fans are understandably hesitant to splash out on a ticket this time around

More than ten years since its premiere, this spectacularly saucy cabaret show – from the talented people who brought us the brilliantly outrageous Blanc de Blanc – is back on the Sydney stage. Popping up at The Grand Electric, Limbo The Return will feature a seductive mix of cabaret, circus and acrobatics, performed with a heart-pounding soundtrack and reality-altering lighting. The international cast features Bulgarian aerialist Maria Moncheva (Harry Potter – Germany), slack rope daredevil David Marco and fire-eating singer Clara Fable.The creators of the show, Strut and Fret originally put together an internationally renowned show called Limbo, which gained fans across the world (including Madonna, who went to see it twice during its London season). The follow up show – Limbo Unhinged – played at the Sydney Opera House back in 2018, and Sydney-based fans will finally be able to reconnect with the spellbinding cabaret-style performance. With the same creative team at the helm, audiences can expect a similar calibre at Limbo The Return: with wildly-impressive acrobatics, titillating circus performances and an ecstatic soundtrack. Composed by New York’s Jank maestro Sxip Shirey, the live music – described by Creative Director Scott Maidment as “a New Orleans brass bands meets the Beastie Boys on the way through Berlin, looking for a house party,” – is one of the main drawcards of this year’s show.  Set in an imaginary space between heaven and hell (hence the name), Limbo The R

Every year, you can count on Bell Shakespeare to bring the Bard’s best megalomaniacal leaders and tragic figures to life for a blockbuster season. This winter, for the first time in over a decade, the prestigious company is revisiting one of his most captivating despots: King Lear.  Starring veteran actor of stage and screen Robert Menzies in the titular role and led by artistic director Peter Evans, this haunting classic will be performed in the round, in the intimate setting of The Neilson Nutshell at Bell Shakespeare’s home in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. Evans and designer Anna Tregloan have drawn from the play’s pagan setting, with the action unfolding beneath a sculptural model of the solar system which extends out over the audience. In this evocative space, the ensemble cast explores central themes of truth, politics, family, succession, authority and religion. Written during Shakespeare’s later years of life, King Lear tells the bleak tale of a tyrant king whose plan for succession slowly leads to a tragic end. In exchange for a share of his kingdom, he demands declarations of love from his three daughters, who must prove their unquestioning obedience (a premise that will no doubt sound familiar to Succession fans).  When the praise from his youngest and best-loved daughter Cordelia falls short, Lear exiles her, and divides everything between the remaining two. With his title officially abdicated, he’s quickly turned out by his deceptive daughters who he thought would

The Hunter Valley gets cold in winter. Real cold. Come mid-year, temperatures in one of New South Wales’ most popular wine country destinations drop to the single digits. What’s worse than feeling the bite in the air is when you’re not even compensated with piles of fluffy snow for your troubles.  The Hunter Valley Gardens took matters into their own hands and for one month and one month only, have created a spectacle of a winter wonderland for the whole family. The botanical venue already takes the cake for the largest Christmas light display in the Southern Hemisphere so expect nothing short of magnificent for their ‘Christmas in July’, if you will.  In terms of the kids (and kids-at-heart) burning off some steam, there will be a mega snow play zone for snowman building and snow angel making, a 45-metre ice slide toboggan, and an ice skating rink. For the little artists, a craft area will be housed in the Igloo Marquee and roaming mascots will be performing and taking super cool photos with visitors (mind the pun).  When you’re ready to thaw out, you can step away from the chilly action and grab a bite to eat from the food stalls dishing up all the fan favourites, from woodfired pizzas and burgers, to souvlaki plates and dumplings. For dessert, load up on warm doughnuts, crepes and ice snow cones. Who said chilly treats are only for summertime? To keep the fun times rolling, the Hunter Valley Gardens will still be operating their permanent rides, like the teacups, carousel,

King Lear is an odd one in the Bard’s canon. Drawing on the royal figure found in murky depths of British legend, the play straddles the line between Shakespeare’s historical tomes (your various Henrys, Macbeth, and so on) and his overt fantasies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. Produced late in the playwright’s life, its violence and cruelty recall the early excesses of Titus Andronicus – if anything, the play’s general pessimism makes the horrors hit harder. It’s heavily weighted with the cynicism of old age – every character, from the titular monarch to nominal hero Edgar, is foolish at best, a ruthless villain at worst. It is, at base, a bit of a bummer. But regardless, we’re fascinated by it. The role of Lear has drawn to it some of the greatest actors of their given age, and the play itself is not only much-adapted to other media, but has inspired countless derivative works – and the lines there are blurry, too. Kurosawa’s magisterial 1985 film Ran is considered a direct(ish) adaptation, but Lear’s legacy can be found in everything from Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-winning novel, 1000 Acres, to Yellowstone (Learism shows up in a lot of epic Westerns, with land and legacy being frequently recurring themes). ...whether he’s raging against the storm or self-flagellating in his grief, [Menzies'] turn is absolutely arresting. Bell Shakespeare’s latest production, helmed by Artistic Director Peter Evans, mixes a fairly traditional take on the play with modern, minima