Wine festivals in the countryside are here to keep you going as the weather gets cooler. Photo: Events Canberra.
It’s set to be a busy week in Canberra, with ballet, wine festivals, art shows, footy and more to keep you and your family entertained. Come see what we’ve put together all across the capital.
Multiple Days
The bright colours of tropical Queensland come to brighten up the first days of Autumn. Image: M16 Artspace.
Beyond The Verandah- Artshow
When: 3 April to 10 April, Wednesday to Sunday, 12 pm to 5 pm
Where: M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith
Cost: Free.
Painter Lynne Thomas presents a decade of watercolours at the M16 space this week. This exhibition demonstrates the inspiration Thomas takes from tropical Queensland, where she has lived and worked for 30 years. Her paintings feature a vibrant array of colours, beautifully showing the flora unique to the Sunshine State. Fields of cane, tropical flowers and trees become the focus of her work, intended to provoke emotion in the viewer rather than striving for anatomical correctness. Thomas’s work is an excellent example of the emotive interpretation of everyday sights that nevertheless bear great importance.
The misty plains of the African bush become the backdrop to a wartime romance in Out of Africa. Image: NFSA.
This week at the NFSA
When: 3 April to 10 April
Where: Arc Cinema, 1 McCoy Circuit, Acton
Cost: Prices vary; see website for more information.
There’s heaps on at the NFSA this week (as always), and they’ve got a great mix for each and every taste (see previous).
From 3 April to 5 April the NFSA hosts the Mardi Gras Film Festival with a great range of contemporary films centralising gay, lesbian, trans and queer stories, from dramas, romances, anthologies, documentaries and more. There’s almost too much to write about. It’s a jam-packed series you won’t want to miss.
On Sunday, they host the highly awarded short documentary A Steam Train Passes, which is about the final passenger steam train commissioned for use in NSW.
On 10 April, Meryl Streep stars in Out of Africa, a wartime romance between a Danish noblewoman and an English big game hunter set on the broad teeming plains of the African wilderness.
Almost 150 years after its debut, Swan Lake remains the world’s favourite ballet. Photo: Victorian State Ballet.
Swan Lake – The Victorian State Ballet
When: 4 April 7 pm and 5 April 1:30 pm and 7 pm
Where: Canberra Theatre Centre, Civic Square, London Circuit
Cost: $65 – $109*, plus transaction fee. Tickets are available from the Canberra Theatre Centre.
The greatest and most tragic of the classical ballets graces the stage at the Canberra Theatre for just two nights this week.
Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece was an initial failure when it debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877. It has since become the most beloved and iconic ballet, with beautiful music and a compelling story that brings audiences to tears.
Adapted from Russian and German folk tales, Swan Lake tells the tale of Odette, a princess cursed by a sorcerer into the graceful but delicate figure of a swan who must find love to break the spell.
We will leave the rest to the incredible visual storytelling of the dancers onstage.
Say farewell to summer at the Stomp Festival. Photo: Events Canberra.
Stomp Festival – Celebration of local wines and produce
When: 5 April and 6 April, 10 am to 4 pm
Where: Various locations; see website for more information
Cost: Prices vary; see website for more details.
Celebrate the great wine regions around Canberra with the Stomp Festival, a must-visit Autumn event where wineries and the people who make them tick invite you into their world.
Become a winemaker for a day and experience what it takes to make every delicious drop, indulge yourself in chocolate tasting workshops, set up a picnic and listen to some live music, treat yourself to wine tastings and take part in the titular wine stomping, where you can enjoy a tradition that goes back centuries.
Thursday
Get out to GIO and back the Raiders! Photo: Jaye Grieshaber.
Raiders v Sharks – NRL Round 5
When: 3 April, 8 pm
Where: GIO Stadium Canberra, Battye Street, Bruce
Cost: Tickets from $35 to $60.
The green machine goes head to head with the Cronulla Sharks – and both teams have started the season with two wins and two losses. Since ’98, the Sharks have won 26 of 51 games against the Raiders, so this could be the match to even the score.
Friday
Canberra Southern Cross Club hosts this great event that’ll have the kids singing and clapping along. Image: Canberra Southern Cross Club.
Dorothy the Dinosaur Spectacular Show!
When: Friday 4 April, 10 am – 11:30 am
Where: Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden
Cost: $28 show only; $58 Lunch & Show. Tickets are available via Canberra Southern Cross Club.
Get ready to Romp-Bomp-A-Stomp with everyone’s favourite Dinosaur in this extravaganza of show-stopping songs, including all The Wiggles’ greatest hits like Rock-A-Bye Your Bear, Hot Potato and Do the Propeller.
Sophie Hutchings is performing at Canberra Museum and Gallery for Resonant Spaces. Photo: Sophie Hutchings.
Resonant Spaces – Piano concert with Sophie Hutchings
When: 4 April, 7 pm – bar and gallery open from 6 pm
Where: Canberra Museum + Gallery, 176 London Cct
Cost: $65 General Admission, $60 Concession, $55 if booking both concerts (+booking fee). Tickets are available via CMAG.
Canberra Museum + Gallery (CMAG) is proud to present Resonant Spaces, a solo piano concert series hosted inside the gallery at CMAG. Featuring ARIA Award–winning artist Sophie Hutchings, this concert offers a rare opportunity to experience live music and visual art together as Hutchings responds to the works of Sidney Nolan.
Saturday
RSPCA’s shelter day lets you meet some of their animals waiting for a forever home. Image: RSPCA ACT.
RSPCA ACT Shelter Open Day
When: 5 April, 10 am to 2 pm
Where: RSPCA ACT Shelter, 12 Kirkpatrick Street, Weston
Cost: Free.
Join the RSPCA for a special Shelter Open Day, held in collaboration with KONG Day, where they celebrate enrichment and the important role it plays in the health and well-being of animals. This is a fun-filled, educational event for all ages, with hands-on activities, behind-the-scenes tours, and the chance to meet some of their adorable shelter animals.
African cuisine, music and dance take centre stage. Image: Africa2Australia.
Africa festival in the park
When: 5 April, 10 am to 8 pm
Where: Stage 88 at Commonwealth Park
Cost: Entry is free.
The sights, sounds and flavours of Africa come to Commonwealth Park for an all-day celebration of culture. A wide range of stalls will serve a variety of traditional African cuisine from all across the continent, as well as handicrafts and cultural items showcasing the designs and colours of Africa. It will also be a day of music and dance as a variety of performers take the stage to wow visitors with the diversity of African movement and music, from older traditional styles to more modern ones.
Comfort Food Cabaret at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre
When: Saturday 5 April, 5 pm and 7:30 pm
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre, 137 Reed Street, Greenway
Cost: $75pp, tickets are available via Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
Comfort Food Cabaret is the creation of Australia’s singing cook, Michelle Pearson. This multi-award-winning cabaret-style experience, with Michelle’s sublime voice at the forefront, walks a line between traditional music and story-driven comedy/cabaret, cooking class and pop-up restaurant.
The soulful songstress serenades diners as she creates a delicious three-course canapé menu accompanied by a live band performing the perfect playlist of jazz, rock and pop.
Enjoy a glass of wine on arrival for the screening of Emmanuelle at Palace Electric. Photo: Manuel Moutier.
French Film Festival 2025: CinéWine – Oh La La – Emmanuelle
When: Saturday 5 April, 8 pm
Where: Palace Electric
Cost: Alliance Française & Palace members: $27. Non-members: $32.
This revolutionary adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel is a masterclass in pleasure. Emmanuelle (Noémie Merlant) arrives at a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, where she uncovers a world of erotic fantasies hidden within its opulent corridors. Directed by Audrey Diwan, this sensory remake of the 1974 cult classic is a slow-burn exploration of female desire. Don’t miss this one-time-only screening!
Sunday
Hartley Hall Markets are back again this Sunday. Photo: Hartley Hall Markets.
Hartley Hall Markets
When: 6 April, 9 am to 2 pm
Where: Hall Showgrounds
Cost: Gold coin donation on entry.
Held on the first Sunday of the month, the Hartley Hall Markets is one of Australia’s largest homemade and home-grown goods markets. You will find stalls offering a variety of products, including food, locally grown vegetables and fresh produce, baked goods, plants, furniture, clothing, pottery, children’s toys, arts and crafts, unique gifts and more.
Stroll among the trees, stay for lunch and enjoy the fresh air, live entertainment and children’s activities.
Help rehabilitate local grassland and keep our natural spaces native. Photo: Ginninderry Conservation Trust.
Ginninderry Conservation Trust Grassland Restoration – Volunteer Event
When: 6 April
Where: Meet at The Link, 1 McClymont Way, Strathnairn
Cost: Free. Sign up to the volunteer database.
The Ginninderry Conservation Trust is looking for keen volunteers to help conduct weed removal on a site called the Scrape and Sow. This is a grassland restoration site where topsoil has been removed, and native seed has been sown to create a Natural Temperate Grassland.
This event involves manually removing targeted weeds (which they will educate you on first) so that the native plants sown there can continue to thrive and establish.
Morning tea and light refreshments will be provided.
Thursday
Flutist Kiri Sollis of the CSO uses her instrument of choice to give an elemental exploration of water, breath, spirit and song. Photo: Martin Ollman.
CSO Down South: Water and Wild
Where: Tuggeranong Arts Centre
When: Thursday 10 April, 6 – 7 pm, Bar open from 5 pm
Cost: $38 / $32. Tickets are available via Tuggeranong Arts Centre.
The CSO Down South concert series returns to Tuggeranong Arts Centre in April with a program inspired by water, breath, spirit and song.
Enjoy free-flowing music for flute, piano and cello by Debussy, Australian composer Amy Beach and German Romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber.
The one-hour concert featuring Canberra Symphony Orchestra members Kiri Sollis (Flute), Samuel Payne (Cello) and Edward Neeman (Piano) opens with Debussy’s Syrinx. Taking its name from ancient Greek lore, pursued by Pan – god of the wild, the nymph Syrinx is transformed into river reeds from which we fashion ‘pan’ pipes.
Australia’s bizarre and surprising history of piracy and privateers comes to the NLA. Image: National Library of Australia.
Privateers and piracy in the Pacific at the National Library
When: 10 April, from 6 pm to 8 pm
Where: National Library of Australia, Parkes Place West
Cost: Free, but bookings are essential. Tickets are available through the National Library of Australia.
Join maritime historian Chris Maxworthy for an exploration of the early interactions of colonial Australia with Peru and Chile (1788-1810) at the National Library of Australia.
In 2018, Chris Maxworthy unearthed documents that indicated a Spanish plan in 1796 to attack the young colony of NSW with gunboats from Peru and Chile. This lecture, based on his research in Spanish and South American archives, tells the fascinating narrative of this period, one that includes pirates, privateers and grand ideas.
Maxworthy will discuss how NSW served as a launching pad for the English privateer Chance to attack Spanish shipping on the South American coast. It’s a fascinating lecture on a forgotten piece of Australian history proudly delivered in association with the Embassy of Peru.
Upcoming events:
- Henry 5 at the CTC – 10 April to 20 April
- The Magic World of Crazy Science – 17 April
- Story Dogs on Sunday at the National Library – Last Sunday of each month from 2 pm to 3 pm
- Sweet Charity – 29 April to 18 May.
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