Perth Festival unveils 2027 program

Perth Festival has unveiled its 2027 program.

Running from Friday, February 5, to Sunday, February 28, the 74th edition of the festival presents 24 days of art in all its forms, featuring seven Festival commissions, two world premieres and eight Australian premieres or exclusives.

The East Perth Power Station will once again be the centre of the action, with a program of live music and late-night events.

This summer’s highlights include a love letter to beloved country music icon, Dolly Parton, with We Will Always Love Her; Grammy Award–winning Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds; genre-defying sample pioneers The Avalanches; legendary US electronic artist DJ Shadow; Kaytetye producer and DJ from Mparntwe/Alice Springs RONA; and Perth’s own Methyl Ethel on the Main Stage.

Community radio station RTRFM will celebrate its 50th anniversary at the Power Station with A Live WA Mixtape, bringing together some of Perth’s greatest musicians across three supergroups led by Maatakitj, Abbe May and Paul Francis Wood. The bands will perform a selection of WA classics, with guests including Rachel Dease (Schvendes), Nicholas Allbrook (Pond, Walrus), Jake Webb (Methyl Ethel), Jae Laffer and Jules Douglas (The Panics), Vanessa Thornton (Jebediah), Lee Sappho, Drew Goddard (Karnivool), Mathas, Anna Schneider, Drea and more.

The Power Station will once again light up with a major new commission by acclaimed Walmajarri artist John Prince Siddon for Boorloo Contemporary, while the free Casa Musica program also returns with renowned musicians from across the Indian Ocean Rim region and beyond.

The Perth Town Hall gets a little more glamorous again this summer when The Embassy moves in for three weeks, bringing live music and old-school glamour to one of the city’s most iconic venues.

The program includes Perth’s celebrated chanteuse Ali Bodycoat, New York cabaret artist Salty Brine, The Waifs’ Vikki Thorn with her ThornBird project, WAM Award-winning singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly, actor and singer Ursula Yovich bringing the extraordinary music of Nina Simone to life, the formidable talent of British Bengali Tara Lilly, Detroit-raised Grammy and Emmy award-winning bassist, composer and bandleader Endea Owens, and New Delhi’s Peter Cat Recording Co.

Sanctum Series also returns in 2027, expanding from the surrounds of St Mary’s Cathedral to the Government House Ballroom with live sets from the UK’s Idrîsî Ensemble, India’s Dr L. Subramaniam and Canadian pianist Ryan Wang.

Beyond the music, Perth Festival 2027 offers a diverse program of arts and culture.

The Festival opens with An Inheritance, an interactive exhibition at PICA featuring the knowledge, advice, jokes, memories and treasured objects gathered by almost 500 primary school children from across Western Australia to share what they believe is worth passing on to future generations. At the Festival’s close, the collection will be entrusted to the WA Museum for safekeeping, sealed away for a century before being reopened in 2127.

Karla Bidi returns for another year, illuminating a pathway through the city and, for the first time, along the coast, looking out across the ocean. Meaning “Fire Trail” in Noongar, the light, sculpture and sound experience was created by First Nations artists Ilona McGuire, Jacob Nash, Chloe Ogilvie and Ian Moopa Wilkes, under the guidance of Noongar Elders including Vivienne Binyarn Hansen.

From WA’s The Last Great Hunt comes a theatrical trip through the weird and lawless early internet in witches.exe, where projected worlds collide with sculpture, puppetry, animation, live performance and an electrifying original score in a bold new world premiere.

Inspired by one of the art world’s juiciest scandals, ROHTKO plunges into a world where the lines between real and fake begin to disappear in a Latvian/Polish fusion of theatre and cinema that plays out like a film being made before your eyes.

Other highlights include Operation: Orfeo, a hybrid of opera and visual art from Denmark’s Hotel Pro Forma that reimagines the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Michael Keegan-Dolan’s 1975 | Naoi Déag Seachtó Cúig, in which seven dancers channel the infectious energy of The Bothy Band’s legendary album 1975.

Taverna Miseria, from award-winning Greek theatre director Mario Banushi, offers an intimate exploration of family, loss and all that remains unsaid. Italy’s Alessandro Sciarroni explores strength, tenderness and trust in Save The Last Dance, while multi-award-winning UK disability-led theatre company FlawBored delivers a scathing satire on identity politics with It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure.

Taking art beyond traditional venues, Boorloo Contemporary will bring creativity to new corners of the city. John Prince Siddon’s work will illuminate the towering industrial façade of East Perth Power Station, while Molly Hunt’s animations transform Boorloo Bridge for Kwop Ben. The program also features solo exhibitions by Darryl Dempster, Doreen and May Chapman, and Dr Richard Walley AM.

Continuing to celebrate local talent, West Australian Ballet will kick off its 75th anniversary celebrations with Ballet at the Quarry: Kira, honouring founder Madame Kira Bousloff OAM. STRUT Dance’s Perth Moves Battle will turn the State Theatre Centre Courtyard into a dancefloor, showcasing skill, style and split-second invention. Meanwhile, Barefaced Stories joins forces with ABC Radio Perth for OFF AIR, giving familiar voices from the airwaves a chance to step onto the stage and share stories they don’t usually get to tell.

Acclaimed Noongar singer-songwriter Gina Williams-Ghouse AM shares the stage with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Warangka (Sing), while the Symphony Orchestra also returns to Studio Underground with intimate orchestral music in Heroes and Hallucinations.

In Northbridge’s Chinatown, Astral Weeks Sessions are Perth Festival’s most intimate offering, with a hand-picked series of extraordinary artists performing one-off sets in close quarters, with each artist kept a secret until they step on stage.

Disability-led station Radio DADAA will send their presenters out to meet Festival artists, audiences and guests, to explore art and culture through a disability lens.

Closing out the program is Kite Choir, a free interactive installation that transforms a garden of soaring kites into a living chorus of young voices from around the world. Suspended against the sky on the South Perth Foreshore/Gaboordjoolup, each kite carries songs, stories, whispered wishes and sounds inspired by nature, inviting audiences to slow down, look up and listen.

The Lotterywest Films season also returns to UWA Somerville on Monday, November 23, with the Australian premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s third feature, The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.

Across 17 weeks, the program spans comedy, romance, intimate drama and powerful documentaries, featuring acclaimed performers including Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Juliette Binoche, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Adam Driver.

“In February, our city will pulse with mischief, surprise and moments of euphoria. From a single voice in a room to thousands of us dancing together,” said Perth Festival Artistic Director, Anna Reece. “This is a Festival that brings the world and Perth confidently into conversation. A reminder that extraordinary art belongs here, and that Perth has something to say to the world.”

Perth Festival runs from Friday, February 5, to Sunday, February 28, 2027. For more info and to buy tickets, head to perthfestival.com.au