PUT A SPRING IN YOUR STEP: NELSON ARTS FESTIVAL 2025 PROGRAMME JUST LAUNCHED

The awe-inspiring, audacious, and accessible annual Nelson Arts Festivalreturns this spring with 11 days and 46 events filled with bold ideas, brave artistry, and unmissable moments. From 23 October to 2 November, Whakatū will be transformed, as Aotearoa’s longest-running regional arts festival celebrates its 31st year with a line-up rich with powerful stories, exciting new voices and opportunities for connection across music, dance, theatre, circus, literature, community and kōrero.

The full programme is now live at www.nelsonartsfestival.nz 

Helmed for the first time by new Artistic Director Janelle Bish, this year’s programme champions works that are deeply human and gloriously ambitious. Inspired by the quiet moment before dawn, Janelle’s vision invites audiences to slow down, reflect, and reconnect in a world that rarely pauses.

“Artists and authors ask provocative questions, share arresting personal truths, and gift us moments of beautiful connection and transformation, sometimes quiet, sometimes radical,” says Janelle Bish, Nelson Arts Festival Artistic Director.

Bringing International flair to the festival is the wildly physical and poetic By A Thread from Australia’s acclaimed contemporary circus company One Fell Swoop. Audiences will witness gravity-defying acrobatics and choreography exploring trust and risk through hilarity, romance, fear and friendship. Fresh from Edinburgh Fringe, this will be the company’s only New Zealand stop.

Opening the festival is Cinematographer, an electrifying new live event from Taite Music Prize-winner Anthonie Tonnon. Blending original compositions with archival film footage, visual DJing and psychogeographic storytelling, this genre-bending performance is a rich, cinematic tribute to the influence of film on modern Aotearoa.

This year, the festival is thrilled to partner with Hikitia! RISE, an organisation committed to safety and harm-prevention, healing, and empowerment. Hikitia! presents METOO Downunder, a powerful conversation between authors Ali Mau (No Words for This) and Sonia Orchard (Groomed) on justice, survival and cultural change, chaired by Dr Nikki Evans (Manager, Hikitia!) and Yes Yes Yes, the award-winning theatre piece on consent and teenage relationships created by Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken (EBKM).

Also created by EBKM is Heartbreak Hotel, fresh from smash-hit seasons at the RISING Festival in Melbourne, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and London’s Soho Theatre. Recently named Best Play at the TimeOut Australia Arts and Culture Awards, Heartbreak Hotel is an exhilarating blend of science and synth that explores what happens in our bodies when we’re heartbroken. 

Literature lovers can immerse themselves in Pukapuka Talks, a vibrant programme featuring 31 authors and thinkers in thought-provoking panels and intimate kōrero. The not-to-be-missed Gala Night brings together some of Aotearoa’s most compelling voices, Ali Mau, Tāme Iti, Hinemoa Elder, Elizabeth Knox, Matariki Bennett, Airana Ngarewa and Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku, as they respond to the provocation “Any Last Words?” in a once-in-a-lifetime storytelling evening.

Pukapuka Talks also offers sessions from some of Aotearoa’s most talked-about authors with their new releases include beloved home cook Chelsea Winter who returns with her brand-new cookbook Nourish, celebrated with an Afternoon Soirée at The Summer House, a lush and unmissable occasion in a beautiful setting. Plus, following the breakout success of her bestseller Aroha, Dr Hinemoa Elder shares Ara: A Māori Guidebook for the Mind, a powerful new resource exploring the inner landscapes of te hinengaro. Other hot off the press book launches include Hooked Up by Fiona Sussman, a gripping psychological thriller; and Kings of This World, a long-awaited new novel by literary heavyweight Elizabeth Knox.

The music line-up is equally stacked, with bilingual “Māori funk” from Anna Coddington, Indian-jazz fusion from Takadimi, and PollyHill & Samara Alofa with Aquaries, their long-awaited sonic collaboration of remixes and a new live show taking the timeless sound into fresh atmospheres. Bringing the laughs is 2025 Billy T Award-winner Hoani Hotene, and ZM and Great Kiwi Bake Off host Hayley Sproull with her razor-sharp new hour, The Baroness.

And of course, the legendary Mask Carnivale returns this year with the theme Transformation. Expect a riot of colour, creativity and community as the city’s streets fill with music, dance, masks, performances and kai, a celebration of shared imagination and Whakatū’s vibrant spirit.

The full programme is now live here.

Whether you’re into aerial circus, powerful kōrero, or music that moves you, there’s something for everyone. Arrive with curiosity and leave with inspiration. Come celebrate spring in Whakatū, and enjoy the city at its best.