SATURDAY
Pick your own sunflowers 8am to 1pm, Mountain View Sunflowers, 111 Bunyarra Place, Hillville. An ice-cream truck, Tinonee RFS fire truck for the kids and more. Also, 8am to noon, The Bloom Barn Farm, 1154 Peats Ridge Road, Peats Ridge.
Hunter Valley Wildlife Park 8am to 4pm, 138 Lomas Lane, Nulkaba. Also on Sunday.
Amalfi Long Lunch Noon to 4pm, Romberg's, Crystalbrook Kingsley. A four-course antipasti feast paired with free-flowing spritz cocktails.
Maitland Gaol - Tower Tour 11am to 12.30pm, John Street, East Maitland. Also on Sunday.
A-League Men Round 10 Newcastle Jets versus Western United FC. 5.30pm, McDonald Jones Stadium, Broadmeadow.
Newcastle Museum Australia in Space (Developed by Questacon. Stories of Australian innovators making it safer to live and work in orbit and using space technologies to improve life on Earth. Learn how Australia's remote mining expertise will help drive the next phase of human spaceflight to the moon, Mars and beyond). Potions and Pestilence (a notebook uncovered in the ceiling of a house in Hamilton shows us how local pharmacies have changed since the mid-20th century). Also on Sunday.
Summer Mexican Style Commercial Hotel, Cooks Hill. Also on Sunday.
Public Skate Session 11.30am to 1.30pm, Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, Warners Bay.
Rathmines Summer Fair 3pm to 10pm, Rathmines Park, Rathmines. Food trucks, rides, jumping castle, carnival games.
Saturday Night Showcase 7.30pm, Newcastle Comedy Club, 1a Darby Street, Newcastle.
Dark Stories - Newcastle's True Crime Tour 7.30pm, 104 Scott Street, Newcastle.
SUNDAY
Beats on the Green 4pm to 7pm, Club Kotara.
New Years Eve 2023 at Queens Wharf foreshore 4pm to 9.15pm. The Queens Wharf precinct will be transformed into a vibrant carnival with rides, inflatables and amusements, roving entertainers, dance floors, maker stations and art workshops, and a dedicated Sensory Area. There will be two aerobatic flyovers by Paul Bennet (6.30pm and 7.30pm), a fire dancer show (6pm and 8pm), Maker Stations, circus and acrobatics workshops (5pm to 8pm), First Nations cultural face painting and basket making (5pm to 8pm), inflatables, rides and obstacles, bungee trampolines, food trucks and market stalls.
Out & About Paddle & Pizza 6.30pm to 10.30pm, Carrington. Paddling, pizza and fireworks. $105 for the half-evening session.
Maitland New Year's Eve 5pm to 9.30pm, The Levee, Maitland. Face painting, live music, activities and a disco
New Year's Eve Fireworks 9pm, Royal Motor Yacht Club Toronto.
Trinity Point Fireworks 8.30pm to 9pm.
New Year's Eve Fireworks 9pm, Wangi Wangi RSL Club.
McGrath Port Stephens New Year's Eve Fireworks 9pm, d'Albora Marinas.
ART
Museum of Art and Culture yapang Rauschenberg and Johns: Significant Others. Shifter, by Marian Drew, Monika Morgenstern, Rebecca Najdowski, Ioulia Panoutsopoulos.
Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima Strawberry Feather Star, by Jen Denzin. Valley of a Thousand Plants, by Joel Zika. Portrait as Phoenix, by Michelle Gearin.
Newcastle Art Gallery Intertwined, by Dylan Mooney and Sleep Rhythms, by Izabela Pluta.
Wupa@Wanaruah Aboriginal Art Exhibition and Trail Hunter Valley Resort, Drayton Family Wines, Rydges Pokolbin, Mecure Hunter Valley Gardens, Mercer Wines, Mecure Newcastle Airport.
Lighthouse Arts Newcastle House of Stories.
Lovett Gallery More Than Sport - History, Culture and Connection in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities Exhibition. Curated by Deaf Sports Australia, it showcases stories of deaf and hard of hearing athletes and sports through a series of videos, photographs and memorabilia.
Maitland Regional Art Gallery Sleep My Horse ... 5 August 1956, by Noel McKenna. Operation Art. Touching and Turning, by Cherine Fahd. The Between, by Deidre But-Husaim. Myth Making, by Kate Rohde and Troy Emery. Free Art Sunday.
Port Stephens Community Art Centre Pottery by Maree Dohnt and Annette Buivydas.
MUSIC
The Wickham Park Hotel Saturday, 4.30pm, Live Baby Live: The INXS Tribute Show.
The Stag & Hunter Hotel Saturday, 8pm, Smacked Youth, Grub, Ragdoll.
Toronto Hotel Sunday, Rockin The Lake ft Edge of Seventeen - Fleetwood Mac, Dee Minor and The Dischords, KISSTORY, Damnation.
The Stag & Hunter Hotel Sunday, Loserfest ft LOSER, Deadshowws, Soda Simulator, Acacia Blue, Sonic Reducer, Maizie, Dead Beat Dad Bod.
