Dunedin Arts Festival Programme Revealed

Dunedin Arts Festival is the South Island’s premiere arts event with a programme that will attract thousands to the city to enjoy a heady mix of theatre, dance, circus, cabaret, music and visual arts. From 26 March to 6 April, Dunedin Arts Festival can absolutely guarantee that Ōtepoti is the only place to be.

Key Dates:
- 30 January    Full programme at www.dunedinartsfestival.co.nz Pick up a free Festival guide around town
- 14–16 February   Special presentation of The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
- 26 March–6 April   Dunedin Arts Festival 2025

See the south at its best when Dunedin Arts Festival brings a breathtaking array of performing and visual arts that will set the city abuzz with thought-provoking theatre, mesmerising music, delicious dance, scintillating cabaret and some truly bonkers physical circus.

Celebrating its 13th festival across 25 years, the 2025 Dunedin Arts Festival is upping the ante with one of its most exciting programmes to date. This year the festival will entertain and challenge with shows from places as far-flung as Canada, Austria, United Kingdom and Australia, as well as world-class acts from Aotearoa and our very own Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Highlights within the opening few days include the poignancy of Commentary of Dreaming, the juggling cowbells of Animal, and the gentle intimacy of In Other Words. Through the week, sign up for a bizarre food-adventure with Te Radar’s Cookbookery, get some really sensible (free) advice from The People’s Oracle, delight in a series of chamber music concerts with DSO at Six, and check out the many (free) visual arts exhibitions. Then go hard on the closing weekend with some outright kookiness of An Evening Without Kate Bush, the heartfelt bliss of contemporary opera with Mansfield Park, and the joyful roar of The Eastern at full tilt. Whatever your pleasure, this is your chance to be part of DAF’s every promise for a “a celebration of the excellent and the extraordinary”.

Festival Director Charlie Unwin is completely invested in the 2025 programme, “It’s always a pleasure welcoming international artists to Dunedin, especially knowing they’re going to be a real hit with audiences. From Viennese modernism to Kate Bush, from Canadian circus to Dunedin dance – there is something in the Festival for everyone!” 

Christine McNamara, Chair of the Otago Arts Festival Trust agrees, “We’re throwing out the challenge for everyone to commit to three festival shows – try something you love, something you’re curious about, and then something totally new – you never know what you might discover.” 

“A Festival is the perfect time to see a range of shows – if they’re in a festival programme, then they have our complete endorsement. There are plenty of free events, which makes that three-show-challenge too easy!” 

“Book early, book often, and try something new!” 

Dunedin Arts Festival is all about bringing people together to experience something extraordinary. The Festival takes over Dunedin’s best-known venues – from the Regent and Mayfair Theatres, to Hanover Hall and the Glenroy, through to lesser known spaces like Errick’s and Te Whare O Rukutia, as well the city’s laneways and outdoor spaces, including the iconic Octagon, showing how theatre, dance, circus, cabaret, music and the visual arts can truly enliven a city. 

Here’s a rundown of the 2025 Dunedin Art Festival programme: 

CIRCUS

One of the biggest acts to tour New Zealand in 2025 is the international hit-show Animal from Canada’s Cirque Alfonse. This is jaw-dropping acrobatics, daring juggling, tap dancing, absurd humour and even a tractor doing wheelies. A guaranteed stupendously big laugh for the whole family. 

COMEDY

An Evening Without Kate Bush is like no other music cabaret on the planet, regardless of how you feel about the phenomenal Kate Bush, this is an absolute don’t-miss-show for a fantastic night out. And then there’s Te Radar’s CookBookery! delving into our passion for cookery, cookbooks and everything purporting to be cuisine – a must for every New Zealander! 

DANCE & MULTIMEDIA

The one-night-only not-to-be-missed opening event for the 2025 Festival is Jeremy Beck’s visionary Commentary of Dreaming, bringing together six of Aotearoa’s finest contemporary dancers alongside 15 non-dance-trained friends from the local community. The power of dance continues with Pōtaka Nautilus & Pepe, using a Southern Pacific lens to create a hybrid fusion of dance, music, theatre and cinematic artistry. And as a special pre-Festival performance in February, two of New Zealand's most celebrated dance luminaries, Michael Parmenter and Lucy present an ode to the darkest hour before dawn, in The Night has a Thousand Eyes. 

THEATRE

Two of Aotearoa’s hardest-working actors come together in In Other Words, a poignant and intimate New Zealand play about a couple facing dementia, starring couple-in-real-life Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst. In a celebration of some of our finest Oceanic storytellers, Upu brings together a stellar cast to perform some electrifying poetry. Austrian theatre-maker Maxi Blaha returns exclusively to Dunedin Arts Festival with Alma Who?, a homage to modernist influencer, composer, author and socialite Alma Mahler. Meet Elizabeth in Wahine Mātātoa The (Mostly) True Story of Erihāpeti Pātahi as she reconciles her own life with the influences of her feisty tupuna; and then there’s Jo, facing the challenges and exhilarating rollercoaster of neurodiversity within her own family (twice!) in Speed is Emotional. As one of Dunedin’s favourite actors, Simon O’Connor will encourage the audience to lean in for a quiet and intense rendering of Beckett’s Company; and more leaning in is required for the delightful Suitcase Show, where a man’s luggage reveals stories within stories. And don’t miss some theatre-on-the-move with The Anderson Localisation, where an interactive app will reveal a story within our city’s laneways. 

OPERA

Dunedin Arts Festival is absolutely thrilled to present NZ Opera’s sell-out hit, Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park with its story of love, ambition and expectations. 

MUSIC

The 2025 programme has a mind-blowing array of local and international talent. Who doesn’t want to be seduced by the gravelled voice and insatiable dynamic of Adam McGrath and The Eastern at full speed, or the world-acclaimed brilliance of live performance with The Veils. Then there’s the beguiling voice of Matt Joe Gow who keeps garnering international accolades for his Americana stylings; and the indisputable classic rock of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Don’t miss a monumental night when Ōtepoti-based band IVY teams up with the Dunedin Youth Orchestra! for Beautiful is the Listening Ear. On the classical side of things, audiences are spoilt for choice with Braden Southee’s ultimate finesse on classical guitar; and Robert Wiremu’s bringing together of Mozart’s Requiem with the Mt Erebus disaster, featuring the New Zealand Chamber Choir and a chamber ensemble in Reimaging Mozart. Chamber music aficionados will be able to further indulge their love to the max with a series of four concerts by musicians from Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and special guests from New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in DSO at Six. 

KIDS

Who’s the witch we all love to loathe? Badjelly! Bring the kids to the best story-reading time ever, when Tim and Lucy go on their biggest adventure in Badjelly the Witch, read by Olivia Tennet with a live music by Tom Broome. Knickers! 

FREE EVENTS

True to the festival’s commitment to be accessible to as many people as possible, this year’s free events are high-quality money-can’t-buy experiences. The People’s Oracle is an interactive installation that will dish out free life lessons and infinite wisdom; Velocine will shine a new light on the inner-city with a mobile projector travelling down streets and alleyways and through carparks, shining images of fish, dolphins and whales onto building walls, with a specially commissioned soundtrack. There are two free pieces that use film to draw you in: The Sea Inside Her looks at the intertwining of ourselves with nature; and Ad Parnassum makes use of the dome at Tūhura Otago Museum to project a piece inspired by Māori, Mediterrean and European cultures. And a massive shoutout for everyone to get their collective groove on with the infectious rhythms and insatiable energy of The Backyard Skiffle Band Show at a Saturday afternoon gig in the Octagon. 

VISUAL ARTS

Alongside the much-loved Dunedin Public Art Gallery, our city has a slew of inner-city galleries showcasing an impressive array of talent: Angela Tiatia – The Dark Current at Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Jane Siddall and Rob Foote at The Artists Room; Chris Adams – Travels in Zealandia at FE29 Gallery; Juliet Best – Ōtepoti – Alchemy and Holly Howe – The Cluster Collection at Gallery De Novo; and the Cleveland National Art Awards at the Dunedin Railway Station presented by Otago Art Society. 

Dunedin Arts Festival is proud to be presenting its 13th outing in 25 years and is extending the warmest of invitations to everyone to be part of the celebration. Don’t miss this chance to see Dunedin at its best – alive with the best of performing and visual arts. 

Dunedin Arts Festival is one of Aotearoa’s major arts festivals, and the largest in the South Island, inviting thousands of people to celebrate the excellent and the extraordinary in everything the arts have to offer. Every two years, Dunedin Arts Festival curates a comprehensive programme of live music, theatre, dance, visual arts and free community events, featuring leading artists and creatives from across the country and around the world. 2025 marks the third festival with Charlie Unwin as Festival Director.

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