What’s On: Sydney October 2026.
OCTOBER IS GETTING OUT OF HAND.
Sculpture takes over the Bondi coastline. Marrickville closes the road and puts six stages on it. Greek cinema moves into Leichhardt. SURPLUS takes over Darlinghurst. Parramatta turns its laneways into one enormous street party. And David Hockney gets blown up to the size of a building.
There’s Sidney Nolan, contemporary Chinese art, ceramics, vintage designer bags, rare books, Japanese art, late-night rock and roll, outdoor dance floors and a party that goes until six in the morning.
Sydney has officially come out of winter.
This isn’t everything happening this month.
It’s the stuff we’d make time for.
ART + DESIGN.
NOLAN: ORIGINS | From 3 October
Before the helmet became one of Australian art’s most recognisable images, Sidney Nolan was figuring out what Australian painting could actually look like.
Nolan: Origins goes back to those formative years, bringing together more than 150 works, including the Ned Kelly paintings of 1946–47.
It’s a big exhibition about an artist everybody thinks they already know.
Which is usually when things get interesting.
FROM 03 OCT 2026
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road, Sydney
BLACK MYTH | Until 15 November 2026
Ancient stories have survived thousands of years. Apparently the internet wasn’t enough to kill them.
White Rabbit Gallery’s Black Myth looks at mythology through contemporary Chinese art, pulling ancient stories into a world of technology, digital culture and contemporary image-making.
Gods, monsters, folklore and humans behaving badly.
,Some things don’t change much.
UNTIL 15 NOV 2026
White Rabbit Gallery
30 Balfour Street, Chippendale
Free
AND STILL I RISE | From 8 October
Twenty women artists. Twenty different ways of looking at identity, belonging and what it means to make work in contemporary Australia.
And Still I Rise brings together culturally diverse women artists at the Art Gallery of NSW, putting different histories, experiences and perspectives into the same conversation.
One of the bigger institutional shows we’re making time for this month.
FROM 08 OCT 2026
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sydney
HANAKO MURAKAMI: RADIANT FORCE | From 9 October
Japanese artist Hanako Murakami arrives in Sydney for her first Australian exhibition.
Murakami’s practice interrogates photography itself: its history, materiality, and the increasingly strange relationship between an image and whatever we decide is real.
One for the photographers.
FROM 09 OCT 2026
The Japan Foundation Sydney
Level 4, Central Park, 28 Broadway, Chippendale NSW 2008
Free
SYDNEY CRAFT WEEK | 9-18 October
SYDNEY CRAFT WEEK | 9-18 October
Ten years of people refusing to let everything become mass-produced.
Sydney Craft Week returns with nearly 100 events across the city, spanning ceramics, textiles, jewellery, exhibitions, workshops, open studios, and markets.
Rather than trying to see everything, pick a couple of makers you’ve never heard of and go find them.
09–18 OCT 2026
Various Sydney venues
SCULPTURE BY THE SEA | 16 October - 2 November
There are worse places to look at art than a cliff above the Pacific.
Sculpture by the Sea returns to the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, turning two kilometres of coastline into one enormous outdoor gallery.
Yes, it gets busy.
Yes, somebody will stop directly in front of you on the narrowest section of the path to take a photograph.
Go anyway.
Early morning would be our move.
16 OCT – 02 NOV 2026
Bondi to Tamarama Coastal Walk
Free
SYDNEY CERAMICS MARKET | 17-18 October
Clay gets its own weekend.
Sydney Ceramics Market brings Australian ceramicists and makers into Eveleigh for two days spanning functional tableware, experimental pieces and larger sculptural work.
It’s technically a market.
You’ll probably leave convincing yourself the slightly unnecessary handmade object you bought was actually an investment in Australian design.
We’re supportive of this logic.
17–18 OCT 2026
Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh
DAVID HOCKNEY: BIGGER & CLOSER | From 22 October
David Hockney gets very, very large.
Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) arrives at Carriageworks, moving through six decades of Hockney’s work using enormous projections, his own narration and a score by Nico Muhly.
Immersive art can occasionally feel like somebody discovered a projector and got overexcited.
Hockney deserves the benefit of the doubt.
FROM 22 OCT 2026
Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh
FILM.
GREEK FILM FESTIVAL | 13-25 October
For almost two weeks in October, Norton Street gets considerably more Greek.
The Greek Film Festival returns to Sydney with new cinema from Greece and the diaspora across Palace Norton Street and Palace Moore Park, moving between comedy, drama, documentary and contemporary Greek stories.
Opening night belongs to Best Friends Forever, Konstantinos Mousoulis’ comedy about friendship, family, and a Greek wedding that goes spectacularly off course.
But we’d dig a little deeper.
Female takes apart the image of Greek screen icon Aliki Vougiouklaki.
Meat turns family, murder and obligation into contemporary Greek tragedy.
The Megalomaniacs follows an archaeologist obsessed with the possibility that ancient pottery might contain recorded sound.
And Acropolis Cats and Other Wondrous Animals, from Australian filmmaker Mary Zournazi, looks at Athens through its stray animals and the humans living alongside them.
We also particularly like a Greek film festival taking over Norton Street.
For a couple of weeks, Leichhardt gets to pretend it’s Athens.
Less marble. Better parking. Maybe.
13–25 OCT 2026
Palace Norton Street + Palace Moore Park
FASHION + OBJECTS.
SURPLUS | 16-19 October
This is one of our October picks.
For three days, SURPLUS takes over Darlinghurst with the sort of cultural pile-up we’re generally interested in: underground music, fashion, vintage, brands, art, food and things that don’t really need a category.
The program moves between Oxford Art Factory, the National Art School and surrounding spaces, bringing together music, local brands, community and a few international Sydney debuts.
It feels less like a conventional festival and more like someone emptied a particularly good corner of the internet onto Darlinghurst.
See you there.
16–18 OCT 2026
Darlinghurst
Various venues
ARCAA SYDNEY POP UP | 13-18 October
A good excuse to actually touch the clothes you’ve been looking at online.
Australian womenswear label Arcaa takes over 17 Oxford Street for six days with unreleased styles, new arrivals and pieces exclusive to the Sydney pop-up.
Works from Formed: Women in Art sit alongside the clothes.
Fashion store meets temporary gallery.
We’ll take it.
Arcaa | 17 Oxford Street, Paddington, Sydney, NSW
OCT 13 – 18 | TUES – SAT, 9.30 am – 5.30 pm | SUN, 10am – 2pm
HAWKEYE VINTAGE POP UP | 22–25 October
Chanel, Hermès, Prada, Louis Vuitton and the dangerous possibility of convincing yourself a vintage handbag is financially responsible.
Hawkeye Vintage comes offline and into Paddington with an edit of authenticated pre-loved and vintage designer bags, jewellery and accessories.
Looking is free.
What happens afterwards is between you and your bank account.
22–25 OCT 2026
300 Oxford Street, Paddington
MUSIC.
MARRICKVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL |
11 October
Marrickville Road without cars is already an improvement.
Add six stages of live music and things become considerably better.
Marrickville Music Festival returns with Polish Club, La Gati, The Slims, XääD, Cast Iron Kid, Aljamia, The Greasy Chicken Orchestra and plenty more spread across the main road and surrounding laneways.
There’ll be food, markets, and the usual Inner West mix of children, dogs, musicians, and people who look suspiciously good for midday on a Sunday.
And it’s free.
11 OCT 2026 | 12 PM–6 PM | Marrickville Road
Website | Free
NIGHTLIFE.
CHINESE LAUNDRY INVITES BARTS + LATIFA TEE & FRIENDS | 16 October
A Friday night underground rather than above it.
Chinese Laundry brings Melbourne’s BARTS north alongside friends, with Latifa Tee and company taking care of the other side of the night.
No elaborate cultural analysis required.
It’s Chinese Laundry. It’s Friday. Go downstairs.
16 OCT 2026
Chinese Laundry
ELECTRO MERVEILLES: THE GRAND FINALE | 25 October
Sunday afternoon becomes Sunday night.
French house heavyweight Tchami headlines the final Electro Merveilles alongside Tigerlily, Alex Hosking, Mowgli May and Fred B Side at Manning Open Air.
Doors open at three. Whatever plans you had for a productive Monday should probably be reconsidered now.
25 OCT 2026
Manning Open Air
18+
MARKETS + THINGS TO FIND.
MASON & MAIN MERRYLANDS INDOOR SPRING MARKET | 17 October
A little further west and considerably less interested in Bondi.
Mason & Main brings its indoor spring market to Merrylands for a Saturday of independent stalls and things you probably weren’t planning to buy.
Markets have historically worked best this way.
17 OCT 2026
Merrylands | 10 am – 4 pm
SYDNEY RARE BOOK FAIR | 22-24 October
For anyone who still likes objects that don’t need charging.
The Sydney Rare Book Fair takes over the State Library for three days of rare books, first editions, maps, prints and assorted pieces of paper that have somehow survived longer than most buildings in Sydney.
There are books dating back centuries.
Suddenly, your first-edition paperback doesn’t seem particularly impressive.
22–24 OCT 2026
State Library of NSW
Free
CITY.
PARRAMATTA LANES | 21-24 October
Parramatta throws open the doors.
For four nights, laneways, streets and unexpected corners of the CBD become temporary restaurants, stages, bars, installations and places to disappear into.
Music, street food, art, and thousands of people wandering around with no real reason to go home.
The best way to do Lanes isn’t to plan much.
Start somewhere. Eat something. Follow the noise.
21–24 OCT 2026
From 5 PM
Parramatta CBD
Free
ALSO ON OUR RADAR | Not everything needs an essay.
OLIVIA DEAN
9–10 October
Afterpay Arena, Sydney Olympic Park
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S JAZZ FESTIVAL
October
Various venues
ZARA LARSSON
15 + 23 October
Hordern Pavilion + Afterpay Arena
AVENGED SEVENFOLD
16 October
Afterpay Arena
CROWS NEST FEST
18 October
Crows Nest
TAME IMPALA
19–21 October
Afterpay Arena
AFRICULTURES FESTIVAL
24 October
Sydney Olympic Park
HANS ZIMMER
28–29 October
Afterpay Arena
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
30 October
Afterpay Arena
KEEP LOOKING
This is the monthly edit, not the whole city.
Sydney is too big, too messy, and thankfully too unpredictable to fit into one article.
For more exhibitions, gigs, screenings, openings, markets, food, fashion, parties and whatever else turns up, keep an eye on the BASE-CAST What’s On Calendar throughout October.
We’ll keep adding things as we find them.
SOMETHING WE MISSED?
Probably.
BASE-CAST’s What’s On is a monthly edit of the exhibitions, gigs, screenings, openings, food, design, fashion, parties and other things happening around the city that we think are actually worth knowing about.
If you’re an artist, gallery, musician, label, promoter, venue, restaurant, designer, filmmaker or simply doing something interesting in Sydney, send it our way.
We can’t promise we’ll run everything.
That would defeat the point.