Episode 828 – A Multicultural/Cultural Sydney Weekend – Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

It’s a typical late summer weekend in Sydney.

The streets, parks, and eateries are full and in Chinatown and Darling Harbour families, tourists, Japanese Anime characters, and Ukrainian dancers are enjoying gelato in the sunshine. Me too. Pistachio.

What’s going on here is that Animaga Sydney 2026 is here, bringing the spirit of Melbourne’s renowned anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture festival to Sydney for the very first time. It’s a precursor to a huge annual Anime Manga and Japanese Comic Culture conference called SMASH! in July.

This young lady put down her backpack and struck a pose with her “claws” for Ted.

Running at the same time was UKIFEST – an annual celebration of Ukrainian music and culture. We were in time to catch some of the non-stop performances by dance troupes from all over Australia. Later in the evening Ukrainian bands were set to take the stage.

There was also a pysanky (Ukrainian Easter egg) garden.

We walked through Chinatown along Dixon Street. It’s largely Asian eateries, and currently not terribly appealing because there’s lots of construction disrupting the pedestrian walkway. Once completed, the new tiled street with its brass “ribbon” leading people along Dixon Street to the Haymarket should be very attractive.

Every imaginable Asian food is available in Chinatown. We watched fresh noodles being made, and marvelled at all the varieties of skewered foods waiting to be deep-fried. I know we’ll see skewers in Malaysia too.

Market City is a modern mall hidden inside the gargantuan historic Haymarket building. It is the hub of Chinatown, Thaitown, and Koreatown.There’s a huge busy food court on Level 1, retail and food stores on Levels 1 and 2, and high-end Asian eateries on Level 3 in an area called 1909. There’s also a cinema, and an entire entertainment “district” on the lower level.

I’d argue that there’s no better way to top off a sunny weekend than a sunset concert at the Sydney Opera House, followed by watching the iconic Opera House sails illuminated with Badu Gili: Story Keepers, a new animation celebrating the work and stories of local and international First Nations artists – Mervyn Street, a proud Gooniyandi man, and Kinngaimmiut Inuk (Greenland Inuk) storyteller Ningiukulu Teevee.

We got to the Opera House too early to pick up our tickets, so – obviously – we found a café in the harbour for flat whites.

No photos were allowed during the 90 minute Great Opera Hits show, but we did take a photo once we got into the 1500 seat Joan Sutherland Theatre – from our vantage point in the very last row.

After enjoying a varied program that ranged from Carmen to Turandot, Madame Butterfly to Cosi Fan Tutti, Lakmé to Samson & Delila, and even Rossini’s William Tell Overture, we headed outside to wait for the sunset sail illumination.