More than 20 things to do this weekend in Canberra
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With the weekend set to bring a mix of showers and sunshine, best hedge your bets and plan your schedule according to the weather.
Luckily Canberra has plenty of options for things to do, inside and out. Here are 20 of them!
FESTIVALS
The Heritage Festival
This year’s theme is Curiosity. The Heritage Festival will invite audiences to be curious about the tangible and intangible heritage that make our region unique. Discover our mid-century architecture, our engineering heritage, or join Ngunnawal custodians as they connect to Country.
9 April – 1 May | Various locations | environment.act.gov.au
Greek Cultural Festival
Back by popular demand, the festivities at the Agora continues — bringing the sights, smells, tastes and sounds of Greece to the Museum.
Much more than a market, the agora was the centre of athletic, social, spiritual and political life in Ancient Greece. Taste delicious food, browse market stalls, or sit back and take in music and dance, including a performance from the Australian Hellenic Choir.
9 April | National Museum of Australia | nma.gov.au
The Canberra Street Dance Festival
The first and only event in Canberra dedicated to celebrating street culture The Canberra Street Dance Festival (Canberra SDF) is back and bigger than ever in 2022!
The festival celebrates the elements of hip hop culture including dance, music, art and fashion in a fun and family friendly atmosphere. Enjoy dance showcases and battles from Project Beats, Passion & Purpose and Fresh Funk, music showcases and rap battles, Street art installations, giveaways from Australian street fashion brands, dance and music production workshops, dance parties and competitions to engage locals in hip hop and street culture, and more!
9–10 April | Garema Place | streetdancefestivalcbr.com
Bungendore Harvest Festival
This annual celebration of the integrity and freshness of the region’s local produce, cold climate food, drink and fibre kicks off with a launch event at ‘AWOL: Another Way of Living’ in Wamboin with a cultural heritage walk led by Ngunnawal man Bradley Mapiva Brown and a potluck dinner.
The usual weekly Bungendore Farmers Market becomes a Festival Market on Saturday morning with extra stallholders, farmers, and producers from around the region. Meet the people who grow your food, taste produce, see demonstrations, and learn more about sustainable living.
There are also farm tours, workshops, and a Long Lunch on Sunday which will celebrate the Lebanese Cultural Heritage of the chefs. Three generations of women will prepare a Lebanese family feast from produce grown within a 150km radius.
Friday 8 – Sunday 10 April | various venues | southernharvest.org.au/harvest-festival
FOOD + WINE
Capital Food & Wine Festival
A day of fun, food, wine and live music, showcasing the region’s best wineries, breweries, distilleries and delicious food featuring Sneaky Sound System, Jack Biilmann, Dean Abbott Music and more.
11am–6pm Saturday 9 April | Stage 88 | capitalfoodwine.com.au
Venus Vinifera
Women’s education platform Venus Vinifera will host their launch celebration on Sunday 10 April at Gorman Arts Centre.
Venus Vinifera is an not-for-profit education platform for women in the hospitality industry of Canberra established in 2022 by Caitlin Baker, restaurant manager of Aubergine. It aims to create a safe and inclusive space for Canberra women to learn about wine, spirits and service.
6pm–8pm Sunday 10 April | Gorman Arts Centre | events.humanitix.com
Markets galore
Check out eight around the region here.
FAMILY FUN
Pixar Putt
Pixar Putt arrives in Canberra this week! This open-air, pop-up mini-golf sensation is made up of interactive putt-putt holes inspired by the stories, characters, and icons from some of Pixar’s most beloved films including Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Soul, The Incredibles, Onward, Finding Nemo, A Bug’s Life, Wall-E, Inside Out, Luca and more. This premiere Canberra season will also feature a new hole from Disney and Pixar’s latest hit movie, Turning Red, now streaming on Disney+.
The experience is perfect for players of all ages and is sure to become a popular destination through the school holiday season. And when the sun goes down, Pixar Putt After-Dark sessions will be available for adults 18+ from Thursday to Saturday nights from 7 pm–10 pm, where patrons can also enjoy all the local food and beverage offerings around the entertainment precinct.
Friday 8 April – Sunday 1 May | Civic Square | pixarputt.com.au
Brick Expo
Brick Expo is an entertaining and interesting exhibition of rare and unique LEGO® creations by interstate and local collectors and modellers.
Hundreds of static, moving and robotic models in themes including: Star Wars™, Trains, Planes, Space Ships, Racing Cars, Monuments and Sculptures.
Since 2011, Brick Expo has been helping pediatric patients in Canberra by supporting treatment for children through the Canberra Hospital Foundation.
9 – 10 April | Hellenic Club, Woden | brickexpo.com.au
Tuff Nutterz
Tuff Nutterz is fun for the whole family—a place to come and relax while the kids have a blast.
Measuring almost 300 square metres, this supersize inflatable maze is packed with 30 fun and challenging obstacles to complete, including huge slides, climbing walls, hanging rails, balance balls and more!
9 –25 April | Parkes Place Lawns, King Edward Terrace, Parkes | fareharbor.com
EXHIBITIONS
On Stage: Spotlight On our Performing Arts
This exhibition brings Australia’s performing arts history into the limelight, also providing a backstage pass to the action behind the scenes, showcasing perspectives on stage direction, costume design, scripts, contracts and musical scores used by performers.
Presented together for the first time and drawing exclusively from the collections of the National Library, the exhibition features items that have never before been on display.
Other highlights include the earliest surviving Australian printed document, selections from the JC Williamson theatre archives, and other contemporary live music and theatre posters.
Until 7 August | National Library of Australia | nla.gov.au
Fourth National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony
Ceremony remains central to the creative practice of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. From the intimate and personal to the collective and collaborative, ceremonies manifest through visual art, film, music and dance. This immersive exhibition and program of events will challenge and unsettle; animate and heal.
Through the work of 35 artists from around Australia, Ceremony reveals how the practice of ceremony is at the nexus of Country, culture and community.
Until 31 July
National Gallery of Australia
nga.gov.au
Snow Gums
Snow Gums offers us a contemporary view of an ancient landscape. With his signature meticulous strokes, Yanni Pounartzis has created a richly layered statement about the spectacular snows gums of Ngunnawal Country.
The Snow Gums collection is a treatise on the Eucalypts in glorious colour inspired by the pigments and patterns of the natural world. The works are a pointed reminder of the magnificent beauty in the trees around us, which in the blur and busyness of urban life, are often overlooked and undervalued.
Now showing
Grainger Gallery
graingergallery.com.au
Kaleidoscope: An exhibition celebrating LGBTQI+ pride
The LGBTQI+ community is so much more than six colours. Diversity and inclusion are the glue that binds the community; the common thread that makes connections and provokes dialogue. Everyone has their own ideas about what it means to be part of this diverse rainbow community.
Belco Arts is celebrating the LGBTQI+ community, and all that makes up its diversity of perspectives, lived experiences and shared ambitions by inviting LGBTQI+ artists in Canberra and throughout Australia—at any level of artistic experience—to create and share what being queer and being part of the LGBTQI+ means to them.
Until 15 May | Belco Arts | belcoarts.com.au
Van Gogh Alive
Last weekend! Van Gogh Alive sets aside traditions of tiptoeing through silent galleries and viewing paintings from afar in quiet contemplation as visitors find themselves interacting with art in a multi-sensory experience. From start to finish, visitors are surrounded by a vibrant symphony of light, colour, sound, and fragrance in a specially designed and constructed 25,000 square foot immersive gallery.
Until 10 April | King Edward Terrace, Parkes | vangoghalive.com.au
Australians & Hollywood: a tale of craft, talent, and ambition
Australians & Hollywood: A Tale of Craft, Talent and Ambition is a Canberra-exclusive exhibition celebrating iconic moments in contemporary Australian film.
This blockbuster exhibition by the NFSA features beloved cinema moments, rare behind-the-scenes footage and costumes and props from the NFSA collection on display for the first time. Discover the creativity and craft that goes into making a classic and get up close with personal treasures from Eric Bana, Paul Hogan, Baz Luhrmann and more.
Until 17 July | National Sound and Film Archive | nfsa.gov.au/hollywood.
PERFORMANCE
Symphony in J Minor
The star of ABC TV and radio gets back to his musical comedy roots, performing songs from his ARIA-nominated album Symphony in J Minor and beyond. Mr J will sing, play, croon, belt, warble, purr and chirp until you kindly ask him to stop.
Saturday 9 April | Canberra Theatre Centre | canberratheatrecentre.com.au
Dags
Dags is an excruciatingly funny and compassionate journey through the world of adolescent anguish. Originally commissioned by Canberra Youth Theatre in 1985, it has become one of the most definitive and popular Australian plays for young people ever. Of course, life as a teenager has changed so much since the 80s… hasn’t it?
Until Saturday 9 April | Canberra Theatre Centre | canberratheatrecentre.com.au
Hamlet
Peter Evans’ critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet returns in 2022. It’s a story of revenge, passion and deception, where human desire for retribution quickly becomes a burden.
Set against a classically timeless backdrop, family turns on family, friendships disintegrate and the ghost of his father pushes Hamlet’s entire world to its brink.
Until 16 April | Canberra Theatre Centre | canberratheatrecentre.com.au
Gotta Have Faith
An orchestral tribute to Pop Icon George Michael featuring a 28-piece Symphony orchestra conducted by George Ellis and special guest vocalists. Hear all your Wham! and George Michael favourites.
Friday 8 April | Canberra Theatre Centre | canberratheatrecentre.com.au
Connecting Stories: Innovations
Professional dance companies, Australian Dance Party and Catapult Dance, youth dance companies, QL2 Dance and The Flipside Project and young QL2 dancers are joining together across borders to create two connected works, the first of which is Connecting Stories: Innovations, choreographed by Alison Plevey (ADP) and Craig Bary (Catapult).
Experience it as the dancers explore innovation and self-portraiture in response to the National Portrait Gallery’s special exhibition Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Saturday 9 – Sunday 10 April | National Portrait Gallery | portrait.gov.au
Feature image by Lauren Campbell. Full credits here.
