Arts & Culture

Matariki Arrowtown Lights will return this weekend for its second year after a hugely successful celebration in 2022. The showcase of stunning projections will light up Buckingham street until 10pm each night, encouraging us all to reflect on the past and welcome the promise of a new year.

Toa is a not-for-profit stage play with a theme of Suicide Awareness, created for the community, by the community.

First Thursdays Queenstown is a free and family-friendly event that celebrates the diversity of arts and culture in Queenstown.

Glenorchy’s fundraising winter quiz series will wrap up next Wednesday, raising much-needed funds for the Early Childhood Education Centre that is going ahead in the area.

The cold won’t stop Remarkables Markets, who are ramping up for their busy winter season with two mid-winter events happening during the school holidays on the 1st and 8th of July.

The NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival is about to kick off in Queenstown, Wanaka and online. The seven-day event celebrates Kiwi filmmakers and all things adventure.

The up-and-coming young musicians of our region are getting ready to perform at the regional final of Smokefreerockquest. The annual event will happen this Friday in Wanaka and will showcase some of the phenomenal musical talent in the schools of our region.

Christchurch-based artist Darryn George’s exhibition, In the Garden Where We First Met, will be on display at Queenstown’s Milford Galleries until the end of June. The eye-catching artworks reflect his religious faith and his Ngāpuhi culture.

Arrowtown School PTA will be holding their biggest fundraiser of the year this weekend. The soiree will include live and silent auctions, nibbles, a cash bar, and live music, with a call to dress to impress. The funds raised will be used to purchase a much needed PA for the school.

Queenstown’s Ivy Box Gallery will host a Street Art Street Party on the King’s Birthday Weekend with proceeds going towards suicide prevention and support. Christchurch street artist Morks / ‘Morepork’ will be coming down to paint several large canvas’ in his signature style across Saturday and Sunday outside the gallery. The pieces will be auctioned off with 50% going towards the cause here in Queenstown.

First Thursdays Queenstown is a free community event that celebrates the diversity of arts and culture in Queenstown. Kick off a weekend of creative exploration on Thursday 1 June with a fun and friendly art crawl across six exhibition spaces. This month get your art fix on Thursday evening before you roll into Luma the following day.

Auckland-based indie-folk band Tiny Ruins will play at the Sherwood on Saturday 13 May as part of their headlining tour supporting the release of their latest album, Ceremony.

Showbiz Queenstown is bringing the classic musical, Little Shop of Horrors, to Queenstown from next week. The show is a sci-fi/comedy/musical that has devoured the hearts of theatre goers for more than 30 years.

Central Otago Regional Choir will perform their show, Diamonds, throughout the region next week, across the Mother’s Day weekend. The show will feature an array of musical gems spanning across three centuries and is one of only two shows the group put on each year.

First Thursdays Queenstown is a free community event that celebrates the diversity of arts and culture in Queenstown. This Thursday 4 May join in for a fun and friendly art crawl across six exhibition spaces showing a wide range of work.

Queenstown Memorial Centre will host the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival next week. The programme features a selection of the most inspiring action, environmental, and adventure films from the original festival, which is held in Banff, Canada, each year.

In December a wily new art organisation was launched titled Curious. Modest in size but ambitious in scope, Curious set out to bring intriguing people and events with a contemporary art focus to the Queenstown-Lakes region. They’re about to have their second free event and are welcoming Associate Professor Susan Ballard from Victoria University of Wellington to Queenstown on Saturday 22 April.

Tahuna-based classical pianist Kinga Krupa will be performing with violinist Rose Light this Friday to raise funds for the youth programmes of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. A free performance will take place at the Atheneum Hall Arrowtown in the afternoon, and a dinner will be held at Oro Restaurant at the Carlin that evening.

Open Floor and 5 Rhythms dance facilitator Sacha Paddy will host a workshop called Tending the Flame at the end of April at Te Atamira. The one-and-a-half day conscious dance workshop will focus on dance and movement as expression rather than performance and is open to everyone – no prior experience is necessary.

A prominent member of Queenstown’s Maori community will stage a play in the resort this winter which he wrote 40 years ago to heal in the aftermath of losing someone dear to suicide.