Each March, the Festival celebrates the city through a series of curious, energetic, world leading and groundbreaking arts experiences. The eighteen day festival, running from Thursday 6 – Sunday 23 March 2025, will invite audiences from across the motu to fall in love with Tāmaki Makaurau through the arts.
“The 2025 Festival is all about inviting audiences to be curious, have fun, and fall in love with Tāmaki Makaurau through the arts,” says Bernie Haldane, Kaitohu Toi | Artistic Director of Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival. “This year’s programme is bursting with vibrant experiences that will not only inspire but also celebrate the heart and soul of our city. Whether you are discovering a new artist, dancing in the last of the summer sun, or joining in the good vibes of Festival Garden, there’s something for everyone to enjoy and we hope you will be left seeing our city in a new light.”
Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival will open with a free event in Aotea Square Kia Kori! Let’s Move!, a dance party hosted by Betty-Anne of Ardijah, Thomas Stowers and Julia Deans, with grooves from legendary band, The Levites, before taking the opening night energy to events across the city.
Aotea Square will be home to the Festival Garden and Spiegeltent – the social centre of the Festival. Whether it’s after work drinks with friends, enjoying live music, or a quick break from dashing from an exhilarating matinee to a wondrous evening performance, artists and audiences are invited to indulge in the Festival energy. Weekend fun, including Whānau Day on the first weekend, will be the opportunity for our Tamariki to take over the space, exploring art and activities for free.
Audiences will experience a great night out that is bright, bold and full of joy with the fun, high energy and a little bit naughty, SMASHED – the Nightcap, an Australian award-winning cabaret featuring fierce drag and circus. Animal – Cirque Alfonse from Canada debuts a hysterically funny and ridiculous circus show suitable for adults and children alike, and the Soweto Gospel Choir bring their extraordinary talent from South Africa with two different shows in the festival line-up, one celebrating the history of House dance music with an Aria-nominated DJ, the second showcasing traditional gospel freedom songs.
American contemporary dance company, Lula Washington Dance Theatre from Los Angeles will appear in Aotearoa for the first time ever, with international premieres of two brand new, dynamic works. Fresh from Edinburgh Fringe, New Zealand company Trick of the Light will present Suitcase Show using beautiful dioramas to tell stories of love and death. Personal by Jodee Mundy (Australia) will bring a blend of performance, storytelling, multimedia and animation about the contradictions of living in two worlds. The atmospheric and immersive Belle – A Performance of Air by NZ collaborators Malia Johnston, Rowan Pierce and Eden Mullholand, will encompass a mesmerising fusion of theatre and aerial arts. All of these shows join the previously announced exclusive NZ season of Scottish Ballet’s powerful adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, and Auckland Theatre Company’s A Mixtape for Maladies, contemporary Asian storytelling at its best. The Festival’s development programme, “Seed of an Idea” will feature a reading of Ngā Whakamāoritanga | Translations, a play about language and its importance to our existence.
The middle weekend of the Festival sees musical artists let their souls sing with Toiere, a specially curated selection of opera arias that have been translated into te reo Māori and featuring a commission of a new aria for the 2025 Festival, and Island Vibes, a silky smooth summer-nights band immersed deep in the soul of the Pacific.
2025 will see the introduction of the first Indigenous Music Series for the Festival and Aotearoa. E ai ki te kōrero a te Kaihautū Māori, a Ataahua Papa, “He kaupapa whakahirahira tēnei. He tuatahitanga tēnei ki te Ahurei, ki Tāmaki Makaurau, ki Aotearoa hoki. Ko te kaupapa matua o tēnei kohinga puoro, ko te rere o te reo Māori, ko te rere o ngā reo taketake o te ao hoki ki ngā tōpito katoa o Tāmaki Makaurau i tēnei tau, tae noa ki ngā tau kei te heke mai”.
Whiua ki te Ao: A celebration of waiata reo Māori will feature the stunning vocals of Maisey Rika and a collective of talented musicians responsible for the recent release of Aotearoa Songbook. Maya Piata uses her eclectic background to mould her own unique style by pulling inspiration from her hometown, New Orleans, alongside the rich culture of her New Zealand roots. Kulāiwi & Kaumakaiwa are performers, songwriters and composers engaging indigenous Hawaiian thought to address today’s issues through music, chant and sharing of spirit. Delbert Anderson mixes traditional sounds with jazz – tunes inspired by the Navajo Nation landscape, historical events and a desire to preserve and educate about Diné history.
Joining the Festival’s music slate is Tami Neilson: The F Word, bringing a feminist country songbook for International Women’s Day, and Irish performer Camile O’Sullivan with a dedication to the songs of Sinēad O’Connor, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and more.
Witness fascinating histories with the already announced exclusive NZ season of global pop phenomenon SIX the Musical, a high-octane musical experience about the wives of Henry VIII. Audiences can discover the star of the silver screen and inventor of the tech that resulted in WiFi in HEDY! The Life & Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, and revisit the legendary Gene Kelly – A Life In Music for one night only with restored film clips, music performed byAuckland Philharmonia, and live on-stage narration from his widow Patricia Kelly.
Closing the Festival will be iconic Aotearoa dance company Black Grace with their new work This is Not a Retrospective, an interactive dance party celebrating 30 years.
Throughout the Festival will be audio described, NZSL interpreted and relaxed performances.
The Festival’s award-winning Access & Inclusion initiative provides low-cost tickets to our Deaf and disabled communities, and the ticket for their companion is provided for free. (Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival received the Arts Access Creative New Zealand Arts For All Award in 2018.).
Tamariki and adult learners will have the chance to interact with the Festival through school matinees, a programme of master classes and a whānau day of activities geared towards younger audiences. The Festival has 3,000 free tickets available to school students for school bookings to selected shows.
Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival
6 March 2025 – 23 March 2025
Presented across Tāmaki Makaurau in venues and outdoor spaces including a Festival hub in Aotea Square, throughout the heart of the city, and around the Auckland region.