Sydney has a rich and diversified cultural life – and indeed a considerable portion of the more than 20 million tourists the city receives are in fact cultural tourists, out to sample the city’s rich cultural life.

Perhaps the main reason underlying the richness of Sydney’s culture is its multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan nature – seeing that almost every major world culture is represented in some way and in some part of Sydney. In fact, almost every suburb in Sydney offers you the opportunity to enjoy a different culture – starting with Oriental culture (Chinese) at Chinatown area of Sydney near the CBD to the Jewish culture, well represented at Bondi beaches to Serbian culture at Liverpool and St Ives – which has a strong representation of South African culture, to mention but a few of the prominent cultures here.

As with most cosmopolitan cities, the richness of the culture of Sydney is best celebrated through its art-scene. As it were, Sydney is home to the world famous Sydney Opera house, in which more than 3000 performances take place annually. Sydney is also the cradle of numerous famous music groups, most notably in the rock genre – which have gained fame in the years past – including the Rose Tattoo, the clouds and the ever eccentric Celibate riffles, to name but a few. As a celebration of its rich culture, Sydney has provided inspiration for a number of popular songs – including the ever fresh classics ‘Sydney town’ and ‘Reckless’

Sydney’s theater scene is thriving too – thanks to the city’s Sydney Theater Company – which manages a considerable number of artists and performances here. Some the major performance theaters in Sydney include the Theater Royal – dating back to the early 19th century, Capital Theater – which dates back to the early 20th century and the Lyric theater – these being some of the city’s theaters.

And to celebrate its past, Sydney hosts a number of remarkable museums – including the Museum of Sydney (which has been described as a storehouse of history), the nation’s Australian National Maritime Museum and the Sydney Observatory – a museum fully dedicated to the subject of astronomy. There are other specialized museums in Sydney, most revolving around the themes of art, science and technology. There is even a museum in Sydney to celebrate the present through technology – the Powerhouse Museum – a place full of gadgetry in what is described as a ‘hands on’ museum set up.

Literature is described as the mirror through which a culture sees itself – and here too Sydney makes a good showing – with a huge active literary community.

Then there are the visual arts – Sydney being (and having been) home to some of the world’s most famous creative minds. So rich is Sydney’s visuals arts scene that its products pour out to the streets through street art and graffiti – and a good place to catch a glimpse of this is at the Newtown area of the city.

The ultimate celebration of Sydney’s culture is to be found in its festivals – most notably the Sydney festival held in January, and which is just one of the city’s numerous festivals, other notable ones being the Tropfest and the Sydney film festival, held annually, not to mention the numerous music festivals.