An estimated one million people attended this year's Sydney Festival which ended on January 26, braving sweltering heat and summer rainstorms for global pop stars, burlesque circus, Aboriginal theatre, contemporary dance and art exhibitions.
In comparison, the annual arts festival in Melbourne, long seen as the nation's arts capital, anticipates an audience of about half that for shows aimed partly at showcasing Australian artists on a global stage.
Sydney Festival director Fergus Linehan sees Sydneysiders as the type of people who adopt a "like it or not" approach to art, whereas Melbournians feel the cultural life of the city is more a projection of who they are.
"I think Sydney interacts with art in a far less self-conscious way," he told AFP when asked about the inter-city rivalry.
"In Sydney, people just interact with the work based on whether they like it or not -- they don't necessarily want to be seen as cultured or anything like that."
The competition between the country's two largest cities has long been a prominent feature in national debate.
While Sydney is known for its Harbour Bridge, Opera House and beaches, it's also considered the country's financial headquarters given the Australian Stock Exchange and central bank are based here.
Some 960 kilometres (600 miles) south down the Hume Highway, Melbourne built itself a buzzing arts life to complement its role as the nation's sporting capital, and hosts a major annual comedy festival and the country's biggest fashion shows.
But in recent years, Sydney's grip on the arts has tightened.
Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, who added some Hollywood glamour with her attendance at one Sydney Festival event, has moved to the harbour city to become joint artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company.
Leading opera, dance and theatre companies are also based in the city while Fox Studios Australia, which opened less than a decade ago, has produced blockbuster films such as "The Matrix" and "Mission: Impossible 2".
"The big difference I think is that, in terms of the making of work, Melbourne is a much more sympathetic place to create work, there's no doubt about that," Linehan said.
"Sydney is quite a corporate town -- there is some beautiful work made in Sydney, don't get me wrong, but I think it's sort of against the odds.
"Like any corporate town, (Sydney) tends to like to work in big entities as opposed to small, micro companies. That's just the natural dynamic.
"So in a sense it's almost easier to put on a really big project in Sydney than to develop a really small one."
The growing Sydney Festival, which began in 1977, this year features several large productions -- from international artists such as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, to Icelandic singer Bjork and Spanish dance company Compania Nacional de Danza.
But it also includes small, quirky offerings such as free haircuts for the public done by 10-year-old children and the three real weddings which took place in the heart of the city and to which the public were invited.
Kristy Edmunds, who is the artistic director of the Melbourne International Festival, said both cities provided the "diversity of what Australia is".
"I think sometimes one loses sight of what is Australia if Australians are focused on who's better, Melbourne or Sydney, because they're both great cities," she said.
Edmunds said while comparing the two festivals was like "comparing an apple and an orange," the Melbourne event could afford to be more experimental because of generous state funding.
"So this is one thing that we do that many of the other festivals don't have as much capacity to do, because there is a much greater pressure sitting on their box office income or their economical impact," the US-born director said.
Linehan, who hails from Ireland, said ultimately the imagined Melbourne-Sydney divide benefited the citizens of both cities.
"The two cities keep each other honest," he said. "Because the one starts to get better at something the other wants to catch up, and vice versa."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2008