Aussie Music Festival! This was such an amazing time! Heaps…read moreof fun! The Newtown area took over one of their local parks, set up music stages and food trucks and rocked out! I absolutely had a great time! For a mere 5 bucks, you get a full day of entertainment and fun in the sun! There were a huge sampling of food trucks, beer booths, and beverage carts. They sold stuff that was much fancier than the regular fair fare. There were merchant booths selling everything from raunchy patches to Nepalese jewelry to boomerangs. They had lots of political activist groups educating the public on the dangers of fracking, the police, groups advocating for looser pub laws, and field hockey! You can even take classes on mulching and recycling! Restrooms were plentiful and clean. Drinking water was supplied for free as well. There was plenty of security and things felt safe. They sold plenty of beer- all locally made in the 'hood! There was a bag check at the gates, but they hardly did a good job of checking. After the festival was over, the party spills out on to the streets where the fun continues! If you're around for this festival, I highly recommend it.

Newtown Festival always seems to fall on the most humid day of November, year after year. Thus, a…read moreday at the festival involves a tonne of cold drinks, plenty of sunscreen (thankfully available from one stall every 50 metres), plenty of sunburn (no matter how you've tried to combat it) and oftena mild case of sunstroke. Plus, you may end up getting rained on at some point. But more often than not, it's worth it. Basically, Newtown festival is a giant market that takes up Newtown's iconic Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. At least 280 stalls stand shoulder to shoulder, selling and promoting everything from food and drinks (both alcoholic and non - I advise sticking to the non alcoholic early in the day to avoid the evil repercussions of the alcohol-heat combo) to skin cancer awareness stands (apt), hula hoop workshops, political activists, face painting, hula hooping, musical instruments, henna tattoos and plumbing services, as well as martial arts demonstrations, live theatre and street art, a writers' area and a huge kids contingent. Weaving your way through all these stalls will take hours - it's a slow and concerted effort making your way down the rows of stalls, each foot being placed carefully so as to not tread on someone elses as the entire population of the markets move as one like a slow motion school of fish. But once you've made your way to the end, you're rewarded with an open green in which to sit and listen to the line-up of local live bands on one of three stages and from experience, these bands are usually pretty good. The festival is free and it's a great way to sample what Newtown stands for whilst supporting the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. Sunday 13th November 9:30am - 5:30pm

Funded by the local Council, Mosman is fortunate to have a gallery of its own. An annual highlight…read moreof the Gallery's exhibition schedule is the Mosman Art Prize, the country's oldest municipal art prize and its second highest in value. Open to Australian artists, former winners include famous professionals as well as more obscure contributors. Viewing the finalist entries is an experience - ideally, arrange to be there for a tour as there is no prescription for the works and getting a grip on the variety of paintings selected is difficult. This exhibition is held in September each year. Throughout the rest of the year, the gallery hosts different painters, photographers and artists, including professional talks and guided volunteer tours. It is free to enter, and always worth dropping in. Being a small venue, it is a good introduction for children to the experience of visiting a gallery. The gallery space is also open for rent as an event venue.

I was there for a suburban game between Sydney and Brisbane in the National Soccer competition…read more The weather was wet, windy and cold- in the middle of summer! In many ways it replicated the feeling and atmosphere of watching the soccer on a small suburban ground in England Although the common word of paying spectators was had the weather been fine, the stadium would have easily sold out (2-3K more people), 11K PAX for the soccer that afternoon The closest train station to this stadium is Carlton on the Illawarra line, the train only stops at Carlton on special events

'Oh when the saaints, go marching innn...' This footy stadium at Kogarah is home of the big red 'V'…read morejerseys, the St George Illawarra Dragons. During rugby league matches you can hear the crowds chanting for miles. At least that's how far away you'll be walking from if you happen to go to one of these matches. If you're late to one, well good luck. The parking for game day events is purely atrocious because there is no stadium parking lot. You can head over to St George Leagues Club , the Kogarah Council Car Park or some spots up near Kogarah Station. Otherwise, you can always try your hand at street parking. Cars queue up for one of these valuable spots because it's a much shorter walk and try to avoid the crowd of red and white pedestrians. And let's not forget about the traffic either. Road blocks and detours make it impossible for ordinary folk to get around, and for pumped up rugby fans, road rage is absolutely mental. So if you're heading in to the Kogarah Stadium, head in early to get some decent parking. The newly renovated Kogarah Stadium has an extended Northern Grandstand so that capacity can reach about 22,000. Of course, cheaper tickets are always available for a spot on The Hill, where most of the local fans are. Food, beverages, alcohol, radio commentary head sets and merchandise are all available on site - what else do you need to watch a great game of footy?

Note that this is from an American's POV…read more Accor Stadium (previously ANZ Stadium) is a large venue that has sport matches and major concerts. I decided to buy tickets the day of to see Lady Gaga during her Mayhem Ball, and the place was nearly full. Supposedly there was 80k people in attendance. It sounds chaotic being at a place with so many people, but it was actually quite smooth. It's super easy to get there by train. You just get off at Olympic Park station and walk about 10 minutes to the stadium. Leaving might be a different story for people, but I left midway during Gaga's last song and didn't bother staying for the encore. Because of this, I was able to get on the train quite quickly without waiting too long. Of course other people had the same idea too, but it wasn't too bad. I've even watched people running from the stadium to the train station, which I thought was a bit much. There's food stands outside before you enter the stadium. Think of them as food stands you'd see at the state fairs. You can get tornado potatoes on a stick, burgers, etc. There's also food inside the stadium, and the pricing is actually very reasonable vs. the ridiculous prices you see at American stadiums like LA's Crypto Arena. It's partial they don't rip you off like crazy and the AUD/USD exchange rate. I got a small gelato for $6, which would probably be more like in the $10+ range in America. You can get banh mi, sushi, burgers, pizza, gelato, etc. For drinks I think there was only beer, seltzer, and wine. If you want to look for sit down restaurants outside the venue, it's quite limited. You'd have to go to the next town over for some good food, and it's about a 20 minute train ride. This stadium is outdoor, so luckily the day I went wasn't raining. It rained the next day, and I would imagine it's unpleasant especially in the seats I had where there's no cover. Overall, it was a good experience. Accor is a good venue for massive concerts. Also for some background: I was trying to buy tickets to see Gaga in San Francisco on the day of the concert, and it was all resellers selling for $300+ for shit seats so I didn't go to that one. It was too ridiculous. In Sydney I bought directly from the official ticketing platform that morning of the concert for $120, not even from resellers, and it worked perfectly fine. My suggestion is if you can, sometime it's probably better to travel to see big acts elsewhere vs. back home if you have the means to. Like Taylor Swift, it was difficult to get tickets to go see her at So-Fi Stadium because of bots and scalpers, the reseller tickets were outrageously priced, and the experience is stressful. I imagine it was probably less stressful to get tickets in Sydney.

Great time at the wanderers soccer match , very nice ,friendly staff at the stadium, not a bad seat…read morein the house , Hope to catch another game before returning to the USA. Go Wanderers!

The AFL often play here but Oz Tag also use the fields. It…read moreis a nice amphitheatre but you need to remember a rug otherwise you will be siting on bindies. There is also a big home and away shed for change rooms. When there are no games on it turns out that it is a pretty good place to fly kites. There is good wind and no overhead power lines.

Recently I came to see a game at this Oval with coworkers. Our company provided us with VIP…read morehospitality tickets so we were very exited to see Manly and Roosters game. Brookvale Oval is a home of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and is located on Pittwater Road in Brookvale. The ground's capacity is around the 23,000 mark and limited parking is available in nearby schools, alternatively there is limited parking in nearby streets or you can park at the Brookvale hotel near by. First if all the VIP wasn't really what i expected and I have been to Allianz stadium so many times with corporate tickets. The VIP area was basically packed. The ticket comes with free drinks during the game and food. The drinks part was fine as the selection of alcohol was great - beer, cider, sparkling, wine, Canadian club etc. No complain about that. But the food?!? We had to line up for a bit or rice and and some curry and a coleslaw on the side. We all were not impressed with the food. The curry wasn't amazing at all. We all ate as we were hungry and mixing alcohol with no food... you know how this would end... Going to get drinks you could see sometimes a waiter walking around with some other food like sausage rolls or beef pies. I was told didn't tasted nice at all. You could take your drinks and sit outside and that's what we did as there was not many seating available in the VIP area. There was not enough tables or seats to even eat your dinner. Not sure how much the tickets are but if you only interested in free alcohol and you will drink a lot this could be the deal for you but if you come here for food - don't... And remember this is Manly area so all fans go for the Sea Eagles....

We took our four year old grandson to his first professional rugby match, to see the Manly…read moreWarringah Sea Eagles. Good match, mediocre facility. The Brookvale Oval has nice viewing and typical uncomfortable seating. That's normal. Food service was minimal and disappointing. Beer flowed, of course, but food choices were poor. Luckily Mommy had packed some goodies for the grandson to eat.

If you've never been, you might think Timezone is exclusively for silly boys in their early to…read moremid-teens, but you'd be wrong! Somewhat.. Of course you do get hordes of ill-behaved boys at Timezone, but it can also be a great, relatively inexpensive way to kill time, as I found the other day when I was waiting for a chronically-late friend. My personal favourite; the maxi claw. That thing is surprisingly hard to manipulate! But if you put your back into it, you can snag yourself a fluffy toy! Oh, and the staff seem some mixture of surprised/excited/suspicious to see a woman in her early twenties there (makes a nice break from rambunctious 14 year olds, I suppose), and showered me with attention. Which is always nice.

Pretty poor considering that there are much better arcades within walking distance (both Galaxy…read moreWorlds spring to mind). While small, it still has all the games you'd expect from this kind of place, and the same clientele (a mixture of sterotypical nerds, uni students and teenage boys). Can't really fault it, but the Galaxy World across the street is a hell of a lot better and if you can walk to Market City, the Galaxy World there is amazing. As it's in the cinema complex on George Street and opposite the Metro Theatre, it's a good place to visit to kill some time before a movie or concert.

We've been visiting the Flying Squadron for a few years since the in-laws moved to Kirribilli and…read moreit is great. Well, it was great, then it took a slide for a while, and now it's great once again! This is not a fancy place, it's for the poorer older Kirribilli folk (the moneyed go to yacht club up the road) who just like to hang about. It gets quite a lot of pre-theatre traffic as well, so expect to wait for a table on show nights. I'd recommend that you come for the trivia, but that'd mean there'd be yet another team that would beat us. They're pretty competitive... ;-p

The Flying Squadron is a membership club located at the end of Careening Cove, Milsons Point and…read morenext to Milsons Park. It's a casual and laid back atmosphere is the perfect place to socialise to have lunch or dinner in the restaurant or have a few beverages at the balcony bar on a nice summers evening. The drinks are reasonable and some Sundays there is live entertainment. The Squadron was founded in 1891 by Mark Foy and was one of Sydney's first skiff sailing clubs. During Summer the club runs skiff sailing lessons in the weekends. Meat Raffles and Trivia nights are run every Thursdays and a Spectator Ferry leaves and returns to the club from 2pm every Saturdays. With so much going on in this little social club you should discover yourself what it has to offer.