The Auckland Arts Festival has announced its 2026 program. Across 5– 22 March, it offers 18 days stacked with art, culture, music and movement from renowned international and New Zealand artists in a “celebration of joy, resilience, humour and heart.”

Music

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Photo supplied

In a 2026 festival highlight, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra stops over on the North Island with a two programs that feature works from Elliot Leung, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Qigang Chen.

American soprano Julia Bullock also makes an exclusive, one-night-only appearance backed by the Auckland Philharmonic on 7 March.

The Auckland Phil also performs in Bartòk’s Bluebeard’s Castle with New Zealand Opera and a cast of internationally renowend vocalists on 13–14 March, and its In Your Neighbourhood series returns with the Phil’s principal quartet and a program of works by Beethoven, Ravel and John Psathas.

Legendary band Moana & the Tribe offers selections from its latest album Ono with a team of visiting musicians including Shellie Morris and Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole.

Performing arts team Te Waka Huia mark 45 years with choral leader Karen Grylls in Ihi. Wehi. Mana. Past and present members come together with a bespoke choir (entry by application) in a celebration of culture and musical tradition.

Youth voices also shine in 2026’s festival program: Belgian pianist Daniel Verstappen performs with the Aotea Youth Symphony for its 40th anniversary, rising classical stars perform with the St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra and young artists writing in Māori language take the spotlight in He Manu Tīoriori.

Theatre

Sincere Apologies. Photo © Lucy Parakhina

Music Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan, a theatrical examination of the life and career of musician Pati Umaga, earns its world premiere at the festival.

Presented by Te Pou Theatre, Tūī Matelau’s award-winning Wet traces the life of a mother and secret erotica author. Hone Kouka’s Waiora Te Ūkaipō – The Homeland, exploring the impacts of colonialism on family and culture also takes the stage. He Kākano offers a reading of two new works from young playwrights: Marmite & Honey by Rainton Oneroa and Becoming Jeff Bezos by Alex Medland.

After a sold-out Edinburgh season, Binge Culture’s darkly witty Werewolf joins the festival program as does Moogahlin Performing Arts’ The Visitors after its New York premiere.

Josh Hinton’s A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) sees its first Aotearoa performance, as does the Melbourne Fringe hit Sincere Apologies.

Dance & Circus

Circa’s Duck Pond. Photo © Pia Johnson

This year’s hot dance item is Alice Topp’s new Macbeth, performed by the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Set to a heavy metal-flecked orchestral score by Christopher Gordon (the recent Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen award-winner), the work follows Shakespeare’s tale of the dizzying highs and lows of political ambition and power. The work plays at the Aotea Centre from 4–7 March.

Q Theatre’s techno-studded The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave, Circa’s tongue-in-cheek Duck Pond, Gravity & Other Myths’ Ten Thousand Hours and Strug & Fret’s La Ronde are among the Australian shows landing on Aotearoan shores during the festival.

More about the Auckland Arts Festival’s 2026 program can be found here.