IT WAS not until I was in Sydney two months ago that I discovered first-hand, the magic behind the much-hyped, much-loved Sydney Festival, which was held from Jan 6 to 26.

Overnight, I understood why tourists arrive in droves every year just to catch the festival. Into its 30th year, the event just gets better. During the three-week festival, arts buffs were held captive by an entertaining programme including dance, visual arts, theatre and music events, public forums and a dazzling array of outdoor concerts.

New in the 2006 programme was About An Hour, a collection of cutting-edge 60-minute productions.

With tickets at only A$25 (S$30) and every show sold out, you must be wondering how cutting-edge the performances were. Well, one of the performances, The Department, had a cast of four, was entirely in gibberish, and included dance, drama and physical comedy. Despite its absurdity, the middle-aged aunties to my left enjoyed it as much as the teenagers on my right.

In total, there were 184 performances at 25 venues throughout Sydney, including three world premieres and 12 Australian premieres.

I visited a particularly interesting show by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), where visitors were encouraged to engage with the exhibits.

Elsewhere, an estimated 85,000-strong audience revelled in the lovely sounds at the jazz and classical concerts in The Domain.

The line-up appeared to take inspiration from the city ? itself brimming with experiences of all sorts for visitors. Just when I thought there was nothing left in its bag of tricks, new offerings came my way.

Take Sydney Harbour for instance. From my suite at the Shangri-La Hotel, it was the first and last thing I saw every day. I could also get an aerial view from the hotel?s 36th-floor restaurant (left), aptly named Altitude.

From the ground, I could feel the precinct?s energy as I walked round Circular Quay. It was impossible to tire of that postcard-perfect triumvirate: the bridge, the quay and the opera house.

For a truly bird?s eye view of Sydney, the city?s top attraction ? literally ? is the Sydney Tower.

My guide, Tim, explained how the Sydney Tower Skywalk goes one-up on the Harbour Bridge climb: At 260m, it is more than double the height of the Bridge.

Once outdoors, Skywalkers are raised another 2.4m to the upper deck. Later, the glass-panelled floor that they are standing on will move slowly out from the platform, leaving them teetering nervously over the city ? just long enough for their eyes to pop out of their heads ? as they watch city life go on below.

When I recovered enough to look up, I was stunned by the breathtaking view. Tim pointed out landmarks, suburbs, bays and beaches as we circled the tower. If not for the drizzle, we could even have caught sight of the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains.

Boutiques and stores aside, take time to explore the suburbs. A short drive away from the city is Glebe, where one could spend a whole day visiting the bookshops, the caf?s and the resident herbalists, naturopaths and homeopaths for some natural therapies and remedies.

Saturdays are particularly colourful ? local artisans and entrepreneurs gather at the Glebe Market to offer an eclectic mix of cl alternative products, crafts and live entertainment.

Everywhere I looked, Sydneysiders showed me a new side to their city ? each one more exciting and fascinating than the last.

The writer visited Sydney as a guest of Tourism New South Wales and Qantas Airways.

Sydney Festival 2007 is happening from Jan 6 to 26. Visit www.sydneyfestival.org.au for details.

Note: This article was part of the Natas Travel 2006 Special published in The Straits Times on March 23, 2006. As a reference to the project's main lead, 'Travel is a numbers game', it's original headline in print was: '184 performances at the Sydney Festival 2006 gave visitors host of choices'.