Um, it’s going to be 20 degrees this weekend?! Here’s how to spend it in Canberra
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Is that spring in the air? This weekend in Canberra looks like a cracker – here’s how you can spend it.
From local markets to live music, Oz Comic Con to Cirque Bon Bon, here are some suggestions on what to do, see and eat.
National Indigenous Fashion Awards at the Canberra Centre
Showcasing the award-winning designs from the winners of the 2024 National Indigenous Fashion Awards (NIFA), pop into the Canberra Centre to see the works of five of the seven winning designers and display images of celebrated local Wiradjuri artist and recipient of 2021 ACT NAIDOC Artist of the year, Kristie Peters.
Featured in the 2024 Country to Couture runway show, it’s a beautiful celebration of the innovation, diversity and ethical practices of First Nations peoples artists and fashion designers.
Until Wednesday 11 September | Canberra Centre, City | More information here.
Cirque Bon Bon
Having performed across Broadway, the West End and Las Vegas, the Cirque Bon Bon team are coming to Canberra fresh off the back of their sold-out Brisbane Festival season.
Bringing with them a talented cast of “mind-bending contortionists, awe inspiring acrobats, and sensational dancers will deliver an exhilarating showcase of skill, artistry, and entertainment, combining death defying feats and tricks that will leave audiences of all ages clamouring for more”, what more could you want to warm up your winter?
Until Saturday 24 August, 7 pm – 8:15 pm | Canberra Theatre Centre, London Circuit, City | Book here.
Oz Comic Con
Calling All Superfans, Oz Comic-Con Returns to Canberra this week! Returning to Canberra for the third consecutive year, Oz Comic-Con is bringing the latest and greatest from the worlds of pop culture to the nation’s capital.
From a bustling showfloor and action-packed schedule, this is the ultimate chance to celebrate and connect with the community all under one roof. expect a spectacular weekend featuring everything from activations and exhibitors to workshops, competitions and hands-on opportunities.
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August, 9 am – 5 pm | EPIC Canberra, Flemington Road, Mitchell | More information here.
Dragon Dreaming Warm-Up Party
This is a one-night experience. Don’t miss Dragon Dreaming at their Warm-Up party!
Born and bread in Canberra, Dragon Dreaming began as a festival in Kowen Forest, where they ran for four years before moving to the luscious site of Wee Jasper. Now they pay homage to this wonderful community of Canberra with a warehouse party of epic music with incredible local and interstate DJs, show-stopping roving performers, captivating live visual artists, interactive art spaces, and top notch production!
Saturday 24 August, 5 pm – 11:59 pm | The Vault, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick | Book here.
Holistic Wellness Taster Expo
This expo is all about celebrating your holistic well-being to help you start your journey to become a happier and healthier you.
From exhibitors to taster sessions (which are 30 minute hand’s on experiences), there will be many opportunities for you to dip your toes into alternative healing, try new wellness practices, and supercharge your well-being.
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August, 10 am – 5 pm | The Abbey, O’Hanlon Place, Nicholls | Book here.
Book Week-themed PAWS Party
Calling all dog and book lovers, this one is for you. Dogs and their humans are invited to a free Book Week-themed celebration in Haig Park this Sunday, with the City Renewal Authority hosting its monthly PAWS Party!
Dress up as your favourite book character, discover a new book at the giveaway, and have some fun with a themed photo booth. There will also be free dog treats and live music from Wayne Kelly that will take place alongside the Haig Park Village Markets
Sunday 25 August, 11 am – 1 pm | Haig Park, Braddon (directly north of Mort Street) | More information here.
Markets
Capital Region Farmers Market
Fresh produce, flowers and the ready-to-eat food and coffee. What more could you need? The Capital Region Farmers Market has everything you need.
7 am – 11.30 am Saturday | Exhibition Park in Canberra, Old Well Station Road, Mitchell | capitalregionfarmersmarket.com.au
Little Burley Markets
Offering a diverse array of multicultural foods, much-loved beverages and brunchables, beautiful blooms, locally made art, fashion, photography and homewares, artisanal bread, delectable pastries, seafood, smoked charcuterie, truffles, meats, puppy treats, and much more, you’ll be able to find plenty of goodies at this bespoke lakeside market
8 am – 1 pm Saturday | Queen Elizabeth Terrace, Parkes | thelittleburleymarket.com.au
Southside Farmers Markets
This village market is located at Canberra College, making it the perfect place to duck in to grab what you need (and maybe a few things you don’t). Order an egg and bacon roll to start the morning as you explore the best of fresh seasonal veggies, handmade pasta and pet treats.
8 am–11.30 am Sunday | 2 Launceston Street, Phillip | facebook.com
Haig Park Markets
Moments away from Lonsdale street’s boutiques and cafes, the Haig Park Village Markets will delight your senses with delicious cuisines, tasty treats, beautiful blooms, fresh produce, delectable charcuterie and artisan products. It’s a lovely place to enjoy a picnic whilst feasting your senses on the culinary delights on offer or to browse the fabulous local handmade design stalls.
8.30 am – 2 pm Sundays | Haig Park, Girrahween Street, Braddon | haigparkvillagemarkets.com.au
Old Bus Depot Markets
Lovers of fine hand-crafted wares, clothing collectors, food fanatics and jewellery junkies are just a few of the people who head to Canberra’s award-winning Old Bus Depot Markets every Sunday. In a fabulous old industrial building you’ll experience the endless colour, tastes, sounds and atmosphere that is “Canberra’s Sunday Best”.
Not your average market, each week you’ll find over 200 stalls of exceptional quality, featuring items all hand-crafted by local and regional creatives. There’s simply no better way to spend your Sunday in Canberra.
Every Sunday | 21 Wentworth Ave, Kingston | obdm.com.au
Food and Wine
Truffle Infused Weekends at Mount Majura Vineyard
It’s finally truffle season and that means it’s time to book your favourite truffle and wine experience.
Enjoy truffle infused triple-cream brie-style cheese with a flight of three 80ml glasses that have been perfectly matched for $40 per person. With sessions available all day Saturday and Sunday, online bookings close the day prior.
Every weekend until Sunday 1 September, 10 am – 5 pm | Mount Majura Vineyard, 88 Lime Kiln Road, Majura | Book here.
Stage and Screen
Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk]
Marrugeku Dance Company’s Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] is breathtaking and heartbreaking – and it’s not to be missed.
From one of our nation’s most innovative dance theatre companies, Jurrungu Ngan-ga (translated from Yawuru as ‘straight talk’) confronts Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration, taking inspiration from the words and experiences of Yawuru leader Patrick Dodson, Kurdish-Iranian writer and former Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani, and Iranian-Australian scholar-activist Omid Tofighian. Connecting the shockingly disproportionate levels of Indigenous Australians in custody and the indefinite detention of asylum seekers in Australia’s immigration detention centres, the performance blends movement, music, soundscape, spoken word and projection to draw on cultural and community experience, moving between horrific surrealism, truth-telling and stunning physicality.
Saturday 24 August | Canberra Theatre Centre, London Circuit, City | Book here.
Murder Distilled
Step into 1924 at the wake of the mysteriously departed Reilly patriarch. With American ‘cousins’ and eccentric Aunt Siobhan in tow, the night takes a dark turn when a guest falls victim. Your task is to question the mourners and solve the mystery before authorities intervene, protecting the Family Business. Outsmart the murderer before they strike again—before the will reading reveals unexpected twists. No one is safe, not even you.
Saturday 24 August, 6:30 am – 8:30 pm | Tuggeranong Homestead, 130 Johnson Drive, Richardson | Book here.
Every Brilliant Thing
ACT Hub are presenting the ACT Premiere of Duncan Macmillan’s “beautiful, heart-wrenching and very funny” (Timeout) play about the lengths we go to for the ones we love, and how sometimes the only way we can help ourselves is by helping others: Every Brilliant Thing.
Don’t miss your chance to experience this humorous, life-affirming show from the acclaimed playwright behind People, Places, and Things.
Until Sunday 25 August | ACT Hub, Spinifex Street, Kingston | Book here.
The Merry Widow
Filled with enchanting tunes and sparkling dialogue, this is your chance to step into the dazzling world of Parisian high society.
Bringing Franz Lehár’s timeless masterpiece to life with opulent ballrooms and champagne-soaked soirees, The Merry Widow will be transforming The Q to tell the story of the charming and vivacious widow Hanna Glawari and the dashing playboy Count Danilo.
Without giving too much away, we can say there’s romance, laughter, and plenty of mischief involved, so make sure to book ahead to join the talented company from The National Opera to see this swoon-worthy tale.
Until Sunday 25 August | 253 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan | Book here.
Music
Baroque Treasures
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ virtuoso Chamber Singers will be shining in a glorious program of Baroque choral music at the Snow Concert Hall.
You’re invited to step back to this visionary age when music evoked powerful emotions with striking and dramatic musical imagery. The program begins with Domenico Scarlatti’s intense, almost graphic setting of the Stabat Mater, followed by expressions of faith and joy, and a fervent mass setting by Monteverdi. Through it all you’ll hear the voices of the Chamber Singers, weaving together in four, eight, 10 or more parts.
Saturday 24 August, 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm | Snow Concert Hall, Canberra Grammar School, 40 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill | Book here.
ANU Flute Day
ANU Flute Day is back by popular demand! Suitable for beginners to professionals, this is a key annual gathering of the Canberra flute community, bringing together ANU School of Music and many of Canberra’s leading flute teachers.
Register now to avoid disappointment!
Saturday 24 August, 11 am – 5 pm | ANU School of Music, William Herbert Place, City | More information here.
The Country Superstar Experience
Saddle up! This will be a boot-stompin’, hat-tippin’ party like no other. Dust off your cowboy boots and two-step your way to a night of dancing under the stars to the biggest country anthems from the decades!
You’ll experience the magic of live performances, DJ sets, and dancers as they bring the hits of legends like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and Shania Twain to life, alongside modern favourites from Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, and Taylor Swift!
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August, 10 pm – 11:59 pm | UC Refectory, 11 Kirinari Street, Bruce | Book here.
Exhibitions
Self Portrait in the Anthropocene
Presented by artist Rebecca Selleck, Self Portrait in the Anthropocene combines curved stainless-steel furniture with intricate bronze work, blown glass, living plants and bodily upholsteries.
This exhibition is a showcase of the artists creation of dissonant spaces that explore our increasing destruction of natural environments and the inherent hypocrisies of being human.
Until Saturday 24 August | Craft + Design Canberra, North Building, 1, 180 London Circuit, City | More information here.
Joan Ross: Those trees came back to me in my dreams
Acclaimed contemporary artist Joan Ross has been invited to select portraits from the National Portrait Gallery collection and situate them alongside her own artworks.
The result? A dynamic and vibrant free exhibition that considers how colonial artworks are contextualised within cultural institutions and asks us to question stories within the archives of history. The first time the National Portrait Gallery has worked with an artist in this way, don’t miss this.
Saturday 24 August 2024 until February 2025 | National Portrait Gallery, King Edward Terrace, Parkes | More information here.
Five Dresses for a Wari Goddess
This exhibition explores colour, materiality and iconography in fashion through an Andean lens.
Artist Ximena Briceño has created five dresses crafted from titanium, aluminum and cardboard using camelids as a main form of decoration, showcasing Trans-Pacific craft and skill.
Until Saturday 24 August | Craft + Design Canberra, North Building, 1, 180 London Circuit, City | More information here.
Chasing Clouds
Jonathon Zalakos is a contemporary jewellery and object maker based in Canberra. In this exhibition he employs motifs of cloud-like abstraction, utilising silver inlay on steel to create representational relief work as externalised models of the unconscious in a modern context.
Until Saturday 24 August | Craft + Design Canberra, North Building, 1, 180 London Circuit, City | More information here.
Peter Boggs – The Memory Of Place Paintings
This exhibition explores the notion of beauty in landscape through glimpses of Italian scenes, not explicitly revealed but drawn from recollections of Peter Boggs experiences over the years.
Throughout Peter’s career, he has been captivated by the mysterious qualities of light and in this exhbition he skillfully constructs his dream-like compositions through delicate tonal layering of oil paint.
Until Saturday 31 August | Beaver Galleries, 81 Denison Street, Deakin | More information here.
Hanging By A Thread – Mosaics For Afghan Women
Part of the Hanging by a Thread project, this project aims to raise awareness of the plight of Afghan women and girls and involves over 1,200 experienced and amateur mosaic artists from 46 countries.
Brining together mosaics from SA, VIC, NSW, QLD, TAS, WA and New Zealand undertaken by communities during the 2022 International Year of Glass, each artist has made a small segment of glass mosaic, which is being joined together to create a series of giant scarfs.
Until Tuesday 20 October | Canberra Glassworks, 11 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston | More information here.
Fairy Land
This solo exhibition by David Helmers explores the dynamic relationship between materials and queer identity, inviting viewers to rediscover joy through playful experimentation.
It challenges societal norms, inviting reflection on joy, resilience, and the agency of materials in shaping cultural dialogue. Don’t miss this!
Until Sunday 1 September, 6 pm – 8 pm | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith | Book here.
The Cave. A River. An Island.
Ross Andrews’s latest solo exhibition explores the intersection of modern media disinformation and ancient allegory through expressive landscapes.
Inspired by the deceptions of Plato’s Cave, the artworks reflect on personal and environmental journeys of discovery.
Until Sunday 1 September, 6 pm – 8 pm | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith | Book here.
Testamur 6
This is a group exhibition by Canberra Art Workshop showcasing artworks inspired by CAW events, including workshops, courses, and art groups.
Featuring diverse mediums like life drawing, painting, and sculpture, it highlights creations that push boundaries and reflect the educational journey of its participants.
Until Sunday 1 September, 6 pm – 8 pm | M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith | Book here.
Fuse Glass Prize
Presented by JamFactory, the FUSE Glass Prize is a non-acquisitive biennial prize for Australian and New Zealand glass artists.
You’ll see the work of 18 finalists (12 established and six emerging artists) at the Australian National University School of Art & Design Gallery.
Until Friday 6 September | ANU School of Art & Design Gallery, Building 105, Corner Liversidge Street and Ellery Crescent, Acton | More information here.
Cobi Cockburn Solo Exhibition
Cobi Cockburn is a celebrated contemporary Australian artist, who sis known for her large wall panels and installations that use shifting tonal linework, that connect and respond to the gallery’s architecture.
Curated by Aimee Frodsham, this exhibition uses neon to further her exploration of line and light. Focusing on the warm glow and rich line quality rather than the intensity expected from neon, it is an exploration into the beauty of energy and the intertwined relationships of art, memory and spirituality.
Until Sunday 22 September | Canberra Glassworks, 11 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston | More information here.
Sport
Raiders v Panthers
Cheer on the Canberra Raiders as they take on the Penrith Panthers!
Make a day of it with the whole family – we recommend getting their early to cheer on the Raiders NRLW team in their Round 5 match against the Cowboys.
Saturday 24 August | GIO Stadium Canberra, Battye Street, Bruce | Book here.
Raiders v Cowboys
Speaking of…cheer on the Canberra Raiders NRL Women’s team in their second double header of the season!
Saturday 24 August | GIO Stadium Canberra, Battye Street, Bruce | Book here.
Capital to Coast 100km Multistage Trail Running Event
Taking runners from Canberra to the south coast of NSW, this is hosted by runners for runners.
Entrants can enter as a solo runner or in teams of two, three or four and the course takes in a mix of trail, fire roads and single track – there really is something for everyone!
Until Sunday 25 August | Various locations | Book here.
Workshops, Tours and Talks
Ceramic Hand Building Workshop
Join Lea from Mud Dept. for a whole day of clay handbuilding!
You’ll learn how to make a leggy pot, planter, set of bowls or even a larger sculptural vase from clay using handbuilding techniques – coiling, pinching and slab to make the desired piece. And (if you’d like), you can also add legs and adornments. Start in the morning by making the piece then enjoy an afternoon decorating with colour (glaze), surface texture and carving with Lea’s guidance.
Saturday 24 August, 10 am – 4 pm | Meet Gather Collect, 68 Bandjalong Crescent, Aranda | More information here.
Clay Hand Building Workshop
Want to play with some clay? Slow down and spend a morning immersed in clay with Lea from Mud Dept.
You’ll learn the clay handbuilding techniques of slab, coil and pinching techniques to hand build an oil burner, vase, mug, treasure box or chosen object. There will also be the opportunity to decorate your piece using a variety of techniques!
Sunday 25 August, 10 am – 12:30 pm | Meet Gather Collect, 68 Bandjalong Crescent, Aranda | More information here.
Winter Tales Presents Beth Campbell
Join Beth Campbell as she delivers a presentation for The National Foundation for Australian Women and the Australian Women’s Archives Program (AWAP) at the National Library of Australia.
When she retired in 2023, Beth Campbell had been the longest serving magistrate in the ACT. Don’t miss her lecture and make sure to enjoy some afternoon tea after the presentation.
Sunday 25 August, 2 pm – 4 pm | National Library of Australia, Parkes Place West, Parkes | Book here.
Breathwork & Sound Healing Journey
Need some zen? Experience a transcendental healing journey with this breathwork class and enjoy the benefits a soul nourishing session that will melt away any tension, stress or fatigue.
Starting with 15 minutes of relaxing breathwork, you’ll participate in a sound healing journey. Bring your mat, blanket, pillow and anything you need to be super comfy during the session.
Sunday 25 August, 6 pm – 7 pm | Weston Community Hub, Weston | Book here.
