2026 Festival Highlights
2026 Pānga WhetiwaraEvents
Overall attendance
Artists, crew and event staff engaged
Audience satisfaction
New audiences
Wellington residents agreed that events like the Festival make Wellington a more enjoyable place to live
Pieces of media coverage
Events
Overall attendance
Artists, crew and event staff engaged
Audience satisfaction
New audiences
Wellington residents agreed that events like the Festival make Wellington a more enjoyable place to live
Pieces of media coverage
Events
Overall attendance
Artists, crew and event staff engaged
Audience satisfaction
New audiences
Wellington residents agreed that events like the Festival make Wellington a more enjoyable place to live
Pieces of media coverage
After a whirlwind three weeks, the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts has officially wrapped up its 40th year! 🎉
THE SHOW MUST GO ON: OP-ED BY ANGELA GREEN
"This isn’t just about the Festival, but what sits behind it: decades of relationships, systems and creative infrastructure. It’s the Wellington Jazz Festival, the Kiri Te Kanawa Song Quest, Tāwhiri Warehouse, and our workshop that builds sets for productions here and across Australasia. Major creative producers like Tāwhiri create jobs, generate economic activity by attracting visitors, support local businesses, and ensure creative workers can make a living. Essential assets that took generations to build are at risk."
In a new Op-Ed, our Executive Director Angela Green reflects on what it takes to keep the show on the road - and why investing in arts and culture matters to the future of Wellington.
Article Magazine
-
Into the unknown: A new opera takes shape
Creating and bringing a new opera into the world is a major undertaking, and for acclaimed composer Victoria Kelly, there’s a mounting sense of excitement and uncertainty.
Three sketches from Victoria’s first opera, Ocean feature as a ‘work-in-progress’ in Orchestra Wellington’s final 2026 concert, Oceans this month.
-
The search is the journey
“A religious obsessive and an atheist walk into a theatre …”
It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s how Wellington creative couple Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt describe the theme of creating their latest play, After God.
-
Experience Benjamin Clementine
Singer, performer, composer, actor – Mercury Prize winner Benjamin Clementine makes his Aotearoa debut at Wellington Jazz Festival next month. Widely regarded as one of contemporary music’s singular voices, here are four reasons you should book your tickets to Benjamin Clementine’s Back to Basics tour now.