Set among the rolling vineyards of South Australia’s McLaren Vale, the Coriole Music Festival has long cultivated a distinctive blend of intimacy, artistry and hospitality. 

Curating its 2026 edition, says incoming artistic director (and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster) Kate Suthers, “felt like playtime. It really was handed over to me as a blank slate, one with every colour available.” 

That sense of creative freedom is central to Coriole’s identity. Rather than pursuing a single long-term artistic vision, the festival reinvents itself every few years through new leadership. The constant is the place: the Coriole winery, with its sunlit courtyard, long tables and the gentle rhythm of a weekend that unfolds as much over shared meals as in the concert hall.

Coriole Music Festival Artistic Director Kate Suthers. Portrait © Jamois

This year’s festival comprises three concerts – two on Saturday and one on Sunday – interspersed with generous hospitality. Audiences and performers dine together on food prepared by chef Patricia Streckfuss, paired with Coriole wines, dissolving the usual boundaries between stage and seats. “It’s really important that it’s not just ‘come and hear some concerts and then go and entertain...