Festival Friends - Book these shows at a discount!
Festival Friends is a club for arts-lovers who thrive on sharing live moments together. As a member, you’ll be first to know what’s on, enjoy early access to tickets, and unlock exclusive discounts reserved just for you.
You can access your 15% discount on A and B reserve seats to the Festival right now! Select from the shows below, and don't forget to enter your unique Festival Friends code at the checkout (it will be in your last Festival Friends email).
Not a Festival Friend yet but want all of the perks of a Festival VIP? You can join here and make 2026 your best Festival yet.
Heads Up: 'Werewolf' is selling FAST, run don't walk! Our friends at the NZ Ballet have kindly offered discounted tickets just for our Festival Friends - tickets must be purchased by November 17th.
Five-time Festival favourites Strut & Fret return with La Ronde — a glittering collision of circus, cabaret, comedy, and exhilaration. Expect aerial artistry, dazzling choreography, powerhouse vocals, and champagne-fizz energy in the iconic Spiegeltent. Ringside seats included in your discount.
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World-class circus crew Gravity & Other Myths return with a mind-blowing spectacle and hilarious hangout rolled into one. Guided by the audience, no two shows are the same — from the elite acrobats behind Backbone (AAF 2019).
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A roof-raising rock revival celebrating Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix. The 27 Club unites Aussie rock legends from The Superjesus, Jebediah, and more for a powerhouse tribute — part concert, part rockumentary, live in the iconic Spiegeltent.
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A vibrant celebration of waiata reo Māori featuring Jordyn with a Why, MOHI, and Muroki. Born from Dame Hinewehi Mohi’s Waiata Anthems project, He Manu Tīoriori brings fresh Māori songwriting, soulful voices, and infectious grooves that celebrate the music and language of Aotearoa.
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Cheeky, exuberant, and spectacular — Duck Pond reimagines Swan Lake with circus flair. Expect feathers, aerials, and breathtaking acrobatics from Circa in a dazzling mix of elegance, humour, and heart on the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre stage.
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Celebrating 45 years of Te Waka Huia, this special performance unites past and present members with choral leader Karen Grylls and an invitational choir in an uplifting blend of kapa haka, waiata, and choral harmony — honouring Māori performing arts and cultural excellence.
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Julia Bullock & The Auckland Philharmonia
Grammy Award-winning American soprano Julia Bullock makes her only Aotearoa appearance with an exclusive evening sure to be filled with magnetic presence and technical precision, alongside visionary conductor Christian Reif.
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Led by its renowned Music Director and Conductor Long Yu — hailed by The New York Times as “the most powerful figure in China’s classical music scene” — Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has been a major force behind China’s classical music prestige since 1879, and is the first international symphony orchestra to visit our city in more than 25 years. In a Festival exclusive, we’re honoured to welcome the 100+ ensemble for not one but two performances during its landmark Australasian–Southeast Asian tour.
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Moana & the Tribe celebrate International Women’s Day with ONO — a powerful fusion of live performance and video featuring six Indigenous women, kapa haka, dance, and global beats that honour connection, language, and unity.
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Music Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan
A powerful world premiere blending music and storytelling with Pacific soul — sharing Fonotī Pati Umaga’s extraordinary journey of resilience, healing, and the unbreakable spirit of a humble disabled Samoan.
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The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave
A trio of hardcore party people. A three-day rave jammed into 60 chaotic minutes. Fresh from mesmerising audiences from Australia to Edinburgh, this award-laden crowd favourite returns home for a triumphant encore.
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Visitors leave, right? Award-winning First Nations storytelling at its most powerful. On the day the First Fleet arrives, seven clan leaders debate how to respond to the strangers approaching their shores.
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Werewolf (Selling fast!)
Step inside a thrilling game of trust and deception. Binge Culture’s immersive horror-comedy Werewolf turns the audience into a community fighting to survive the night — but who can you trust?
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As part of our development programme to support new work, we spotlight two promising young Māori playwrights with a pair of play readings directed by Jason Te Kare.
He Kākano - Marmite & Honey
Set at a tangi over 24 hours, Marmite & Honey brings feuds, secrets and battles to the fore, as a dysfunctional family come together to farewell one of their own and reflect on how to deal with grief and loss.
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He Kākano - Becoming Jeff Bezos
Imagine being in rural New Zealand with no contact from the outside world when you are suddenly confronted by global capitalism.This quirky scene plays out in Becoming Jeff Bezos by actor and playwright Alex Medland (Kāi Tahu).
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Say sorry. Really mean it.
Experience a participatory performance based on all the apologies that the world keeps offering — the famous, the obscure, the deeply personal, and those that begin every second email in our inboxes.
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For a show-stopping Festival finale, look no further than the Super Fly sound of BIG HORNS, live and outta sight. A trailblazing modern-day brass band, this homegrown funk unit is also a veritable party machine, serving up reimagined dancefloor hits from Prince, Beyoncé, Dr. Dre, De La Soul, Kool & the Gang, Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more.
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Macbeth - Discount ends Nov 17!
The Royal New Zealand Ballet with choreographer Alice Topp, bring naked ambition, politics and transgression to the fore in an explosion of contemporary ballet with this new, original staging — propelling Shakespeare’s iconic characters into a shadowy world of manipulation, boardroom intrigue and violence.
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