November in Sydney: top events in your city this month
Robbie Williams and the Foo Fighters at Accor Stadium within a week of each other, Iron Maiden's first stadium show in the city, Jack Johnson in the Domain and the harbour party season kicking off at Fleet Steps. There are well over a thousand events on around Sydney this month; these are the forty-odd we'd actually message the group chat about.
Every pick below links to its live page on Keen, with dates, prices and the ticket link. The links retire once an event is done, so if one tells you it's been and gone, that's the truth doing its job. For the always-current version, what's on in Sydney is rebuilt from the catalogue nightly.
The big nights
Robbie Williams: Britpop World Tour
Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park · Saturday 14 November
Angels, Rock DJ, the lot, with G Flip and Lottery Winners warming the place up. A stadium full of people who know every word and are not shy about it.
Foo Fighters: Take Cover Tour
Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park · Tuesday 10 November
The same stadium four days earlier, turned up a great deal louder. A Tuesday, which is a problem for Wednesday and nobody else.
Iron Maiden: Run For Your Lives
Allianz Stadium, Moore Park · Sunday 15 November
Fifty years of Maiden, Megadeth in support and the first time the band has headlined a stadium in Sydney. Bring earplugs and a mate who owns the back-patch.
Jack Johnson: Surfilmusic Tour
The Domain · Saturday 14 November, from 4pm
Barefoot songs in the park as the sun goes down, with Ben Harper and John Butler playing solo sets first. The gentlest big gig of the month by a wide margin.
Jay Chou: Carnival II World Tour
ENGIE Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park · Saturday 21 November
The King of Mandopop at full stadium scale, doors at six and a three-hour show behind them. If a mate has been quietly humming Qing Hua Ci for twenty years, this is their night.
Robyn
Afterpay Arena, Sydney Olympic Park · Saturday 21 November
Dancing On My Own in a full arena of people doing exactly that. One of the decade's big comebacks, and the arena show to pick if you can only pick one.
Joji
Afterpay Arena, Sydney Olympic Park · Saturday 14 November
Slow Dancing in the Dark, sung back by an arena. The same room also hosts Daniel Caesar on the 5th, Charlie Puth on the 10th, Khalid on the 13th and Benson Boone from the 17th, so clear a few nights.
Kool & The Gang + Sister Sledge
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour · Friday 27 November
Celebration, Jungle Boogie and We Are Family outdoors in the middle of town on a Friday night. Every family function you've ever been to, done properly this time.
Lime Cordiale + Pacific Avenue
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour · Sunday 29 November, from 3pm
Sydney's own earworm specialists closing out the month with a full afternoon of supports in the park. A Sunday session that turns into a very late Sunday.
Smaller rooms, bigger nights
Talib Kweli
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst · Sunday 8 November · 18+
One of hip hop's great emcees in a room this size is the sort of thing you tell people about for years. Sunday night, so you'll have to be brave.
Budjerah: Gentleman Tour
Metro Social · Saturday 7 November
A multiple ARIA winner playing his debut album in a small room. Get in before the rooms stop being small.
Regurgitator
Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach · Friday 20 November · 18+
A one-off Bondi stop with thirty years of hits crammed into one night. Polyester Girl in a beer garden by the beach is a reasonable way to spend a Friday.
Central Station Records: 50 Years
Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst · Saturday 7 November, from 2pm · 18+ Free
The iconic record store turns fifty with a vinyl fair by day and a party by night, free entry, back at its spiritual home. Dig through Sydney DJs' crates, then stay for the records they kept.
Comedy
Celia Pacquola: Gift Horse
Sydney Opera House · Sunday 8 November, 4:30pm and 7pm
The show that won Most Outstanding Show at this year's Melbourne Comedy Festival, about the people we love and the things they give us that we hate. Two sittings on one Sunday.
Greg Davies: Full Fat Legend
State Theatre · from Saturday 7 November
The Taskmaster himself, very tall and very cross, in a grand old theatre. A proper touring hour from a proper touring comic.
Dara O Briain: Re:Creation
State Theatre · Wednesday 11 November
Quick, warm and ruthless with the front row. Part of Just For Laughs Sydney, and a good reason to leave the house on a Wednesday.
Carl Barron: Just Wondering Why
State Theatre · from Tuesday 17 November
Easygoing laughs about nothing in particular from one of the most beloved comics in the country, settling into the State for a run. Take your parents; they'll love it more than you.
On stage
Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical
Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay · previews from 15 November, opening night 25 November
The story of the biggest-selling Australian album ever, turned into a world-premiere musical by Sydney Theatre Company. You're the Voice, sung by a full house, is going to be something. The previews are the cheaper way in.
Copland Dance Episodes: The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House · 6 to 21 November
Justin Peck's joyous, colour-drenched ballet in its exclusive Australian premiere, its first performances outside New York. Thirty dancers and Copland at full volume.
A Beautiful Noise
Sydney Lyric, Pyrmont · from Saturday 14 November
The Neil Diamond musical, made with the man himself. Sweet Caroline is in it, and yes, the whole theatre does the bit.
Cirque du Soleil: Kooza
The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park · under the big top all month
Death-defying acrobatics and clowning in the big top. The one circus that everybody, including the mate who says they don't like circus, ends up gasping at.
SIX the Musical
Theatre Royal Sydney · sessions all month
Henry VIII's six wives as a pop girl group, settling their history in one fast act with no interval. The most fun you'll have at a musical this year.
Blanc de Blanc
The Grand Electric, Surry Hills · sessions all month · 18+
Champagne, acrobatics and cheeky cabaret in a grand old theatre. The "we should do something fancy" night that isn't actually that fancy. For something quieter, Snowflake at the Ensemble is a bittersweet Christmas showdown running until the 21st.
Galleries and museums
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer
Carriageworks, Eveleigh · daily · from $35
Sixty years of Hockney thrown wall to wall and narrated by the man himself, straight from Lightroom London. Big, bright and over before you've finished looking.
BODY WORLDS: The Anatomy of Happiness
The Rocks · until 30 November · $37
Real anatomy, up close, in its final month in Sydney. Plenty to argue about on the walk out, which is the point.
Nolan: Origins
Art Gallery of NSW · daily · $30
Ned Kelly, the Wimmera and a hundred and fifty works from the years Sidney Nolan redrew the country. If you only do one gallery this month, do this one. Harry Potter: The Exhibition is out at Olympic Park for the mate who'd rather see a wand.
Ai Weiwei: Mushrooms
Museum of Contemporary Art lawn, The Rocks · daily Free
Five hundred cast-iron helmets forty metres long on the harbour, a public artwork about the fragility of life. Walk through it on the way to the ferry and think about peace for a minute.
Affordable Art Fair
Carriageworks, Eveleigh · 5 to 8 November
Paintings, sculpture and photography, all clearly priced from $100 and all walking out the door with whoever buys them. Dangerous for the wallet, excellent for the walls.
Talks, tours and curious things
Sydney Open
Across the CBD · Sunday 1 November, 10am to 5pm
One day a year to poke around the buildings you're normally not allowed in: heritage halls, brutalist lumps, skyscrapers and a fire station. Build your own route and wear real shoes.
Curious
Sydney Opera House · Wednesday 4 November · from $39
The Opera House's ideas festival, with big thinkers, a beloved comic and a celebrated chef trading ideas on the one bill. The Wednesday you'll actually have something to say about on Thursday.
An Evening with Mary Beard
State Theatre · Monday 23 November
The historian who made Rome funny, talking classics for an evening. The mate who thinks about the Roman Empire daily has finally found their night out.
Astronomy at The Calyx
Royal Botanic Garden · Monday 16 November, 7pm · $55
Telescopes, dark energy and a glass of wine in the gardens with an astrophysicist. For the evenings after, the Garden's Twilight Garden Tour runs torchlight walks through the possums from the 4th.
Markets and free days out
The Finders Keepers Design Market
Carriageworks, Eveleigh · 13 to 15 November
More than a hundred and fifty designers and makers, plus food and drink, timed to sort your Christmas shopping in one go. Friday evening is the civilised session, from 4pm.
Culture Alive Festivals
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour · from Saturday 7 November Free
Food, music and dancing from a dozen of the cultures that make Sydney Sydney, free in the park. Turn up hungry.
Flour Mill Nights
Flour Mill precinct, Summer Hill · Friday 27 November, from 4pm Free
A free Friday night of street eats and live music in the inner west, one of only three this year. Grab the crew and a plate of something.
Le Marché French Market
The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park · Sunday 1 November Free
Pastries, crêpes and forty-odd Parisian stalls on the first Sunday of the month. The other free Friday habit worth starting is the Barangaroo Markets, harbourside street food on the first and third Friday.
Sydney Town Hall organ recitals
Sydney Town Hall · from Monday 16 November, 12:30pm Free
Nine thousand pipes filling the Town Hall at lunchtime, free with a ticket. The best half-hour of a work day, and the loudest.
Open air and late ones
Harbourlife
Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point · Saturday 21 November, 2 to 10pm · 18+
A stage on the harbour, house music until ten and the Opera House lit up over your shoulder. The party that tells Sydney summer is on.
Hot Dub on the Harbour
Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point · Friday 20 November · 18+
Five years of Hot Dub Time Machine on the same harbourside steps the night before Harbourlife. Every song you know, in order, with the water right behind it.
Gilles Peterson
Liberty Hall, Moore Park · Sunday 15 November, from 3pm · 18+
A day party of soul, jazz and global rhythms from one of music's great connectors. Sunday afternoon into evening, which is the correct way to see out a weekend.
Nina Kraviz
Manning Open-Air, University of Sydney · Saturday 28 November · 18+
Nina Kraviz open air under the stars with ANNĒ and SHDW, one night only. Honey Dijon takes the same open-air stage the night before.
Anjunadeep Open Air
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour · Saturday 28 November, from 3pm · 18+
London's deep and melodic house label takes over Tumbalong Park from sunset to stars. If you'd rather it soulful, Kerri Chandler is at Liberty Hall the next afternoon, and Dizzee Rascal plays a Glass Island boat on the harbour that same Sunday.
Something different
Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy
Albert Palais, Leichhardt · from Friday 6 November · 18+ · $66
Four of Poe's stories staged around you over ninety minutes, each paired with a cocktail. Chilling in the good way.
Alcotraz
Chippendale · sessions all month · 18+ · $65
Don the orange jumpsuit, collude with corrupt guards and smuggle in the makings of your cocktails. Deeply silly, executed completely straight.
Candlelight: Tribute to ABBA
St Stephen's Uniting Church · Friday 6 November, 8:30pm · $41
Every ABBA singalong you know, rearranged for a string quartet under candlelight in a church. Ed Sheeran Meets Coldplay is the next night, and Queen closes the month on the 28th.
The part where you actually go
That's the list. The gap between reading it and standing in one of those rooms is the same as ever: someone has to pick a date and make the call.
That's the job Keen does. The quickest way in is Find a time: pick two or three dates that could work, add an idea or two from this page, and drop one link in the group chat. Everyone answers from their browser, no app and no account needed. You see which date wins, tap once, and it's a real plan with RSVPs and a chat of its own.
And once your mates are on Keen too, it starts doing the noticing for you: everyone marks the nights they're free, and when yours line up, Keen tells you, along with what's on that actually suits the crew. A month with two stadium nights in one week and a harbour party season starting on the 20th is the obvious place to start.
November's forty-odd best excuses are above. Pick one, name a night, and send the message.
Start closer in. See what's on in the next few days, pick a night, send the link.
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