Say what you will about the road closures, flag waving tourists and very un-Australian outward displays of public religion, I'm taking inspiration from the thousands of visiting pilgrims and like them, I'm not paying for public transport this week.

Free public transport? Hallelujah!

Look, I personally love every minute of the Sydney film festival, especially the screenings at the State, and I think it gets better every year, but I can't help but feel a large portion of older Sydneysiders buy tickets to complex and confronting foreign films just so they can storm out in disgust.

Also another typically great Sydney experience: if it's not a sold out session, no one really gives a toss about "reserved seating". Case in point: at my session of the new Errol Morris documentary Standard Operating Procedure tonight I duefully moved towards my reserved seat, only to find a dozy, dishevelled old codger (possibly without even a ticket) had plantet himself in my seat. It was Bob Ellis.

For nerdy film and media buffs like myself and the people I work with, this is our grand final season, and possibly my favourite time of year to be in Sydney.

Every may, the World Press Photo exhibition arrives in town, showcasing the previous year's most powerful, creative and inspiring photo journalism from around the world. It will leave you in shock and awe. For some reason I always seem to be a bit hungover when I go every year, which makes all the shots of African civil war mutilations and beheadings a little harder to take.

The best part: its at the State Library and it's free. And it doesn't visit Melbourne. Go Sydney (and to a lesser extent: Brisbane).

This is the last weekend it's on, if you haven't seen it, go (but take a box of tissues).

The annual Archibald Prize really is Sydney's only known visual art event. Once a year, every broadsheet newspaper reader in Sydney ventures down to the NSW Art Gallery, pays their $8, scans the paintings, passes judgement on the winner, ooohs and aarhs over one photo realistic entry, and then returns home to their live of Star Wars DVDs and/or reality TV shows, feeling cultured. Well, at least we've got one visual arts event that gets people out of the house.