Feast for the culture vultures

Tony Oursler's "Blue Invasion" was a real crowd-puller.

Let's face it. Much as the Heart of the City boosters in Auckland and the Absolutely Positively Wellington cheerleaders in the capital blow their own trumpets, it would be hard to keep a straight face if they said: "There's so much to do here people aren't travelling anywhere."

But when it's said of Sydney, even coming from Ian Cameron, international marketing manager for Tourism New South Wales - and he would, wouldn't he - it has a ring of truth.

Cameron is pointing to the fact that despite its ranking near the top of the wishlist destinations for overseas visitors, the Australian market relies heavily on internal tourism. Mr Branson's cheap flights and those his hustling has kicked into competition between the main Australian centres are the lifeblood for the hotel and tourism businesses.

But Sydney - and Melbourne - have so much going on that Mr and Mrs Ordinary Ocker must think twice about leaving home for the holidays.

Try walking round Darling Harbour or the Rocks at the weekend. The obedient crocodiles of disciplined Japanese and the sweaty pink Poms - not to mention the Aucklanders bemused by the novel concept of a city waterfront that people can use - are liberally punctuated by the trippers in from the suburbs, eating ice creams, taking each other's photographs and perfecting their Kath 'n' Kim impressions.

And there always seems to be a reason to come into town. The events calendar rarely seems to have a blank date.

But what might come as a surprise - and it probably would to Melburnians whose belief in the brashness of Sydney is as ineradicable as the Wellingtonian's belief in the nouveau riche vulgarity of Auckland - is the nature of many of the events.

The Sydney image is that of the hustling, busy modern city against the background of beaches, nightlife and the city lights. But my most recent visit underlined the reality that there is something more cerebral available.

My trip, which left me feeling it was all too brief for reasons that will become clear, was to sample the Sydney Arts Festival. This was a star-studded and substantial barrage of events that encompassed modern dance, theatre, visual arts, music and artistic talkfests in a programme where I had a real sense of disappointment in not being able to see it all.

Then there's the Sydney Writer's Festival this month, and the 2006 arts Biennale next month. This is on a heroic scale organised around the theme Zones of Contact.

It will include 85 artists and collaborations from 57 cities in 44 countries, making it one of the most ambitious art events ever staged in our neck of the cultural woods.

The Biennale will collaborate with arts organisations across Sydney, extending to more than 16 venues and sites.

Projects will be created for specific public sites and outdoor locations and many of the events are free, as they were for the Arts Festival, where the installation Blue Invasion by Tony Oursler in Hyde Park was a real crowd puller.

But good though the festival offerings were, it was the fare available beyond that caught the imagination.

The Museum of Contemporary Art's Jacky Redgate exhibition was stunning and brilliantly curated, and the same institution's Kienholz exhibition deserved more hours of attention than I could give it..

The festival event at the Museum of Sydney - photographs by and of the tenants of a notorious housing development - was imaginative and moving, but the regular exhibit on the history of Bondi was a model of how contemporary history can be entertaining and thoughtful at the same time.

Whenever you visit you can depend on there being worthwhile exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Gallery of NSW, and the galleries in Paddington, from the Olsen Carr and Stills to Byron Mapp and the Sherman, all have quality shows.

It's a bad week if you can't catch something from Opera Australia, the Australian Ballet, Graham Murphy's Sydney Dance Company, the Sydney Symphony, the Australian Chamber and Brandenburg orchestras, to name a few.

The City Recital Hall in Angel Place where I saw American pianist Christopher O'Riley is a terrific venue, comfortable, visually appealing and with a good acoustic. The Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay is another facility at which Aucklanders can only look in envy.

And, of course, there's that other little venue. Much criticised as the Sydney Opera House is, as an actual performing opera space it is, nevertheless, a cherished prize in the name-dropping game. Few culture buffs are unhappy to boast: "Oh, yes, well, I saw Janacek's Jenufa at the Sydney Opera House."

At the time of writing it's hosting the Hockney-designed production of the Rake's Progress conducted by Richard Hickox, as well as productions of Madam Butterfly and the Magic Flute.

Whether you count the Mardi Gras or the Royal Easter Show or the Spring Racing Carnival as cultural experiences is a matter of taste. But it is impossible to deny the vibrancy of the place.

And as the backdrop to all this brain fodder there are, of course, the more routine attractions of the city. One says routine but they are, in truth, anything but.

You'd have to be pretty jaded not to enjoy the spectacle of the harbour, no matter how often you see it. The view while breakfasting on the 18th floor of the Shangri La, the efficient and comfortable hotel in which I stayed, or watching the ferries and cruise ships in the evening light is not to be dismissed.

And when the homegrown trippers are back at work on Monday Sydney changes from a leisure park back into a working city, sharp-suited and confident.

Feeding the expense accounters and the tourist appetite has produces a wealth of restaurants which provide fulltime employment for a small army of restaurant reviewers.

And at the end of the working day you can slip off to Bondi, no longer the sole preserve of expatriate Kiwis, but still offering the sight of waves full of surfers watched by the the older set sipping champagne from the vantage point of Iceberg's, one of the upmarket eateries no longer confined to the city. And it's Bondi that hosts the annual Sculpture by the Sea event which is claimed to attract crowds of over 400,000 to see work from overseas and Australian artists.

It is no wonder the Sydneysiders are becoming a bit reluctant to get on the plane for Darwin or Alice Springs. Why would you bother?

* John Gardner was the guest of the New South Wales Tourist Board, the Sydney Arts Festival and the Shangri-La Hotel.

* FURTHER INFORMATION

For information about cultural events in Sydney see www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/whatson, www.events.nsw.gov.au or www.showbiz.com.au.