The 7 Best Things To Do In Sydney This October
Any month that commences with a long weekend and ends with the temporary arrival of a huge beach-side sculpture gallery is a good month in our book. Throw in daylight savings and we’re as happy as Larry. We’ve filled your month with great food, killer beats, and some cycling practice. Enjoy!
[listicle]Listen up at Listen Out
Welcome October with a killer line-up of dance music from near and far as Listen Out returns to the stunning Centennial Park. This festival has a cult-like following, attracting a crowd that welcomes the intelligently curated lineup of live acts and DJs. RÜFÜS will be playing its last Australian show of the year and will be joined by local talent Ngaiire, and well-deserving others including Cosmo’s Midnight, Willow Beats, A$AP Ferg, and Joy. Act quickly as final release tickets are nearly gone. It goes down on October 1, tickets here.
Photo: Ngaiire/Facebook
A brand new food hall
If you’ve travelled through Europe, it’s likely you’ve enjoyed a long lunch and glass of wine meandering through different cuisines, plates and courses in one of the many food halls dotting major (and not-so-major) cities. Drawing inspiration from these Euro food halls, Harold Park Tram Sheds have just thrown open their doors to crowds of excited and hungry Sydneysiders looking to experience an array of providores under the one roof. The space, built in 1904, once housed 200 trams, but was most recently home to inner-city harness racing. Inside you’ll find gourmet offerings from the likes of Flour Eggs Water by A Tavola, Butcher and Farm, Gelato Messina, Bodega 1904 and Belle’s Hot Chicken. The space and the layout invites communal dining, and as it’s open from 7am each morning, you can enjoy some of Sydney’s finest foods all day long.
Party in silence
If you like your disco with a side of sanddunes, this is the event for you. For two nights in October on the 15th and 29th (and one in November on the 19th), some legends are hosting a pop-up Roaming Silent Disco on one of Australia’s most gorgeous stretches of coast. The details are scarce and will only be given to those with a ticket, but the lowdown is, once everyone meets at a secret spot to receive their wireless headphones, the party will groove from beach to beach, with pop up parties at each one. Your final stop is Bondi Beach, where the festivities will continue long into the night. Limited tickets are still available here.
Roll with it
October 12 sees Australia celebrate National Ride2Work day, and Sydney is going one better with the month-long Sydney Rides Festival. With the days getting longer and the weather getting warmer, it’s the perfect time to whip out your two-wheeler and get into some events. Why not put down Tinder and take up Speed Dating for those who like bikes? Or take a mystery ARTcycle ride through St Peters and surrounds, complete with guided tour and stops for mobile cinema projections of films and shorts? And for those crafty types, we love the Fabric ride – a slow-paced 20 kilometres cycle that will take you into some of Sydney’s best fabric shops and cafes, where you can purchase and peruse, or just bring your old fabric and patterns along to swap with other riders. You can also roll down to Prince Alfred Park or Observatory Hill on October 4 for free brekky and bike tune-ups from 7am – 9am.
RELATED: HOW TO START RIDING YOUR BIKE TO WORK
A Halloween spooktacular (feat. arcade games)
Oxford Art Factory is going full Halloween this year for Insert Coin(s)’s latest event on October 20. Doing what they do best, Insert Coin(s) will bring the old school arcade games, and you can bring your playing fingers and your best spooky get-up. On the decks spinning the greatest ’70s and ’80s party anthems of all time will be Levins, Glenn B Tripping and Martin Novosel (Purple Sneakers). It isn’t a Halloween party without free candy, so rest assured your sugar levels will take a level up, and your inner vampire will be fed thanks to Woofy’s hot dog cart. Tickets are $15 on the door, or avoid the lines and book here.
Photo: Insert Coin(s)/Facebook
Tough Mudder
OK, so there’s a lot of gluttony this month (let’s face it, every month), so we thought best to counterbalance that with a physical activity that will earn you a huge amount of #humblebrags on social media. Enter: Tough Mudder. This event isn’t for the faint of heart – literally. (Like read-the-waiver literally). It’s a 20-odd-kilometre obstacle course that snakes its way through the gorgeous Glenworth Valley on October 22 and 23. Enjoy the view while you can, because you’ve got some challenges coming your way. From the Arctic Enema to Everest 2.0, mud runs and the electric shock, there’s a reason this event is billed as ‘probably the toughest event on the planet’. With no clocks and no champions, we suggest doing it in a group and having some fun with it. Tip: plan to do a whole lot of nothing the following day. You’ll need it. Sign up here.
Photo: Tough Mudder/Facebook
Seaside scenes
From little things, big things grow. With one great idea and a team of volunteers, David Handley pulled off a weekend-long sculpture exhibition on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk 20-years-ago. Sculpture by the Sea is now the world’s largest temporary outdoor sculpture exhibition and it’s back from October 20. Making the most of the spectacular natural setting, more than 100 artists from around the globe will be bringing their works to Sydney for just over two weeks. We recommend hitting the exhibition as the sun is rising and the crowds are thin to marvel at the fun, the quirky and the intriguing. Keep an eye out for artist talks and events throughout. Check out our video from the 2015 event below.
Photo: Vincent Rommelaere [/listicle]
[media_embed]https://youtu.be/F4wobTjsg0M[/media_embed](Lead image: Sculpture by the Sea)
[qantas_widget code=SYD]Check out Qantas flights to Sydney here.[/qantas_widget]
