- Sydney has had its first “perfect day” in months, hopefully setting the scene for spring and summer.
- Locals have been bitterly stuck indoors over the past few months with unpredictable weather and a very wet winter.
- Mode Festival helped Sydney Harbour feel alive with a full-day dance party on Cockatoo Island.
The beaches were packed, the city felt alive with shoppers, brunchers and tourists milling about, and Sydney Harbour was teeming with all sorts of boat life. Saturday, October 11, 2025 was a very good day to be in Sydney.
There’s nowhere in the world that feels like Sydney on a perfect day, and this was our first after quite a few months of climate-swapping with Melbourne. It felt like a reward for putting up with so much wind, rain and misery each weekend, Mother Nature reminding us that she does indeed play favourites, and that she’s always been fond of our unfairly attractive Harbour City.
Sydney was full of life, both indoors and outdoors
Meanwhile, Cockatoo Island was thumping with the increasingly popular Mode Festival, headlined by the likes of Four Tet and Kink. Our greatest stages came to life each day, with well-attended musicals like Rent, Back to the Future and The Book of Mormon. We even saw the birth of a brand new theatre for Sydney’s robust arts scene, that being the Teatro Theatre in Leichhardt’s Italian Forum, which opened strongly with Broadway smash The Addams Family.
Families buried themselves underneath the Art Gallery of NSW to get a glimpse at the world’s first dystopian art park, where you can do laundry, shower, sauna and even BBQ. Visitors barrelled into some of our newest restaurants, including Martin Place’s Rovollo Restaurant & Wine Room and Paddington’s The Palomar, a Down Under edition of the famed London restaurant and a scene-stealer for the new 25Hours Hotel The Olympia
Few cities glow quite like Sydney when the sun is in command. Morning light spills across the harbour in ribbons of gold, rippling off the water and setting the sails of the Opera House aflame in a soft, earthy shimmer. The Harbour Bridge’s steel arcs are glinting like a jeweller’s work as the sun passes over to kiss sandstone terraces and jacaranda-lined streets. On days like this, the whole city feels newly washed and awakened.
But the real magic was found on Sydney Harbour
As locals, we get a cherished reminder that we really do live in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, where the city’s architecture bends to every grimmer and gust from our surrounding harbour and ferries trace bright paths between emerald headlands. I found it near impossible to be cynical while floating on the harbour, steaming towards Cockatoo Island for the aforementioned Mode Festival.
You can’t help but pause and marvel at such a sight. Your boat rises and falls with the harbour’s rhythm, wrapped in trails of molten gold wherever the sunlight choose to dance. Yachts streak white across the blue, and the ferries move with the calm assurance of old souls who know these waters by heart. The soundtrack shifts as you go: RÜFÜS DU SOL spilling from one deck, Kylie from the next.
Once I hopped off on Cockatoo Island, it was nothing but energy. Mode Festival has been on a for a few years now, but it’s never felt more vital as the city looks towards a stronger, more consistent day- and night- life. A Sydney dance festival that feels distinctly Sydney, thumping from day to night on the former convict goal while big-name electronica acts squeeze in between the rusted steelwork and turn these warehouses into messy, sweaty dance parties. Who needs a Euro summer, anyway?
Mode Festival’s indoor-outdoor format worked incredibly well. Logistics were fine: there was plenty of food, bars were smartly placed and weren’t overloaded with queues, and getting back off the island at any point was as easy as stepping onto one the many boat’s that constantly darted from King Street Wharf to Cockatoo Island. It marked the first in what should be a unseasonably strong few months for anyone who loves a good party or concert.
A hopeful sign of things to come
It’s easy to lose sight of Sydney’s best side during the winter months. This year’s was especially brutal, so you might understand that Sydneysiders are having a bit of a moment right now. It’s as if a lockdown has ended and we’re finally ready to fan out onto Sydney Harbour with wide-eyed optimism about the next few months. This is the Sydney that people save their entire lives to see, that make the long-haul flights worth it.
Sydney is going to be showing its best side in the coming months. We have Sculpture by the Sea starting in just a few days, set to pull capacity crowds to the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. There are countless Halloween events this year, hopefully framed by crisp summer nights. We’re also in the midst of racing season as Sydney’s Spring Carnival schedule brings in some major outdoor events.
We’re a city that sulks through the cold months but bursts back to life in the sun. And when that light returns, spilling over the harbour, setting the sails aglow, and coaxing us back onto the water, there’s a collective exhale. A pride in knowing we live somewhere that can still stop us in our tracks.
For visitors, there’s no better time to visit Sydney than over the next few months. Just leave some space on the sand for us, will ya?
