Arts & Culture

The last film screening in Arrowtown Creative Arts Society’s (ACAS) Winter Film Series will be Dale Frank, Nobody’s Sweetie. On Friday, 24 October, following the film, there’ll be a Q&A with director Jenny Hicks.

Santiago Bonhomme has been selected as one of the winners of Christchurch City Libraries National Poetry Day Competition, taking home a prize in the adult category for his poem The World War Has Not Yet Reached the South Island.

Pulling together a production in a week sounds pretty challenging, but it’s what 45 young people with the help of Stage Antics will do these school holidays. On Friday and Saturday, they will bring the show Sister Act JR. to the stage, performing at the Memorial Centre.

At the World’s Edge Festival (AWE) will celebrate their fifth festival this year, in October. They’ll be delivering an extensive programme of chamber music across Queenstown, Bannockburn, Wānaka and Cromwell.

Snow Machine festival is underway, bringing 7000 people to town for skiing, music and events. One big party. DJ Hot Dub Time Machine returns to Queenstown and is sure to be one of the highlights, playing hits across the decades - check out Jess Allen's interview with the man himself, Tom Lowndes.

Remarkable Theatre’s latest production is Kiwi playwright Roger Hall’s Take a Chance on Me. The funny, warm and relatable comedy will take over Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall next week and follows a lively group of characters as they navigate the ups and downs of love, loneliness and starting over later in life.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Annie Goldson will be in town on Friday for a screening and Q&A of Red Mole: A Romance. The film explores the origins, performances, personalities and fate of the Kiwi group Red Mole, who burst onto the scene in the early 1970s.

Gibbston’s brand-new music festival The Valley has unveiled a stellar line-up for January 2026.

Award-winning comedian Tom Sainsbury is coming to town – twice! This Friday he’ll be tackling Kinross with his show, Can’t Dim This Shine, before performing Lessons Not Learnt in October in Arrowtown.

While much of Queenstown’s history focuses on stories of the men of the time, author Lauren Roche is focusing one of the most influential women of the time – Julia Eichardt.

Arrowtown Creative Arts Society (ACAS) and Queenstown Writers Festival are bringing New Zealand’s Poet Laureate Chris Tse to town. He’ll be performing this Friday alongside local poets, and will also host a Masterclass on Saturday.

The Central Otago Whine Tour will return this Friday and Saturday, bringing talented female comedians to Rhyme X Reason and Sherwood.

Dunedin pianist and composer Abhinath Berry will perform at Arrowtown’s Aspiring Lifestyle Village this Sunday. Midway through a scholarship in London, it’s a show not to be missed.

Te Atamira’s latest exhibition, Elemental, takes a look at the foundational forces – earth, water, fire and air – that shape our natural world and the creative process.

Following a six-month search across Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas, Queenstown's cultural centre Te Atamira has a new director.

Fresh off the back of the release of Double Parked Season Two and sold-out tours around Aotearoa and across the ditch, comedian Chris Parker will bring his one-man show to Queenstown this month.

New Zealand Poet Laureate Chris Tse is set to appear in Queenstown for a special one-night performance this August.

Otago’s iconic landscapes have long captured the imaginations of photographers, and this year’s Otago’s Lens on the Wild World photography exhibition confirms that Queenstown, Wānaka, and Arrowtown aren’t just scenic destinations, but creative powerhouses in the realm of nature photography.

Neighbourhood Story Slam (NSS) is a monthly event organised by Claire Murphy Barnhart and Amanda Hayes. The community event features a changing theme, which storytellers will share based on.

The good times will continue during the colder months at Remarkables Markets for their mid-winter markets.