The city’s arts lovers were abuzz this week as Perth Festival launched its 2026 season. This marks Artistic Director Anna Reece’s second year at the helm, and she describes the new program as a balance of international and homegrown works.
“I feel really proud of the work the team’s done. It’s a program that features a lot of incredible new Western Australian work. But equally, we’re an international arts festival, and I think it’s so important that Perth Festival plays its part in ensuring our reputation as an international city of culture to the rest of the world.”
Anna Reece. Photo Credit Jessica Wyld Photography.
Opening the program, it’s hard to look past the striking image of Matagarup Bridge on page 10, used to promote A View From A Bridge. This project sees Perth Festival step into new digital arenas, amplifying Perth’s own voices, people and stories.
London-based artist Joe Bloom is behind the project, which many may recognise from social media. His viral videos feature individuals standing on bridges, speaking into a red telephone to share their personal stories. Anna says the work will build a collection of stories from people in Perth for audiences across the world.
“This project is coming to Perth to show off our incredible bridges and our beautiful people. It will really shine a light on the extraordinary within the ordinary.”
Posted across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and more, A View From A Bridge offers a new way for audiences to engage with festival content. “It’s very important for festivals to embrace the fact that a lot of artistic work now exists only online. This is a very moving, truth-telling, human work.”
A View From A Bridge will highlight Perth people and their stories.
But it’s not just Perth’s bridges that will feature this year. The festival will return to East Perth Power Station, which Perth Festival transformed into a live music hub in 2025 to immense success, revealing the potential of what this historic site could become.
Anna reflects on that leap of faith. “The power station was such a huge part of the program to launch, and there was this terror of people not coming. I would have these nightmares, slash daydreams, of the power station sitting empty during the summer. The fact that Perth showed up for it was just so incredible. I feel hopeful that Perth will return, because everyone loved it so much.”
East Perth Power Station returns in 2026. Photo Credit Jessica Wyld Photography.
The Power Station isn’t the only unexpected venue this year. The Embassy, hosted at Perth Town Hall, makes its return, now home to a jazz, cabaret and RnB program bringing the “razzle dazzle”, as Anna describes it. The festival has also found new spaces to inhabit, including St Mary’s Cathedral for the Sanctum Series.
Anna explains why these new spaces feature so prominently this year. “One of the challenges and opportunities we’ve talked about for next year is that the Perth Concert Hall is not available. That’s the big venue for more traditional or classical or fine music. We’ve always been on the hunt for other venues to showcase that style of music.”
Her proximity to the CBD led to its discovery as a potential venue. “I drive past St Mary’s Cathedral all the time. It was just a moment of thinking, hang on a second, this is a beautiful location. Traditional and fine music is often performed in churches and cathedrals around the world. It’s a practising, operating cathedral, but it’s not a place that a lot of people go to, and I just thought, why not? What about a simple, ethereal program of brilliant choral musicians and chamber artists, where the notes linger longer because of the space, and because of the experience you have in there.”
The Sanctum Series will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral.
With twenty world premieres and thirteen Perth Festival commissions, the presence of local talent is prominent in 2026, covering all disciplines. “West Australian artists are all so extraordinary, and it takes a good chunk of time, energy, creativity and resources, blood and sweat, to bring shows to life. I’m always in awe of our local arts sector.”
Creating a program that brings in artists from across the globe is no easy feat. Anna says it requires detective work and a constant curiosity. “You finish the day job in the office from nine to five, and you go home, and you are constantly looking at social media, reading reviews from around the world to get a sense of what’s happening.”
That’s how she discovered many of this year’s shows and artists, including A View From A Bridge. Others came from artists she’s long admired, such as Jaha Koo, who brings his interactive culinary experience Haribo Kimchi to the festival.
“I saw a work of his years ago that I completely fell in love with called Cuckoo, which covered similar themes about what it’s like to live in South Korea as a young person and feel a sense of loneliness or anxiety, and how food comes into it. He programmed all these different rice cookers to be his companions on stage. It was ingenious and beautiful. So I followed him for a long time, and when I found out he was making a new work, I asked him to send me a video. I watched it online and then got to see it in person last year.”
Haribo Kimchi
If you had FOMO last time from missing out on Karla Bidi lighting up our skies or the mystery of West Australian Opera’s Secret Opera, both are returning in 2026. “I can tell you the location for Secret Opera this year is genius, ambitious, daring, super fun. I can’t use any other words, because otherwise it will give it away.”
For those unfamiliar with the festival or unsure where to start, thirty-three of its events are free to attend. Anna says ensuring there are free and community-based events opens the festival up to everyone.
“In the past, festivals haven’t always felt like they should be for everyone. There’s been a level of elitism. Festivals are literally about bringing people together for a moment in time with the ambition to change things, to change each other, to change how we think, to change how we feel. We have to connect with the people who live in Perth, otherwise I’m not sure what this festival would stand for.”
Not only can you watch many of these events, but you can also be part of them. Anna highlights one in particular, Cercles. “It’s this huge mass participatory dance project that over 200 people in Perth can do, working with one of the world’s greatest choreographers, Boris Charmatz, and STRUT Dance. Anyone can participate, you can be a wannabe dancer, an established dancer, or just someone who’s curious. It culminates in a big public free performance of 200 dancers performing this beautiful circular choreography in the middle of Forrest Place.”
With 108 events across music, theatre, dance, visual art, film and more, the program fits the saying that there’s something for everyone. For Anna, her role as Artistic Director is a “total privilege”, and she’s already looking ahead.
“As soon as we launch this puppy, I have to bed down and start working on 2027 and 2028. It’s an absolute dream to run this festival and to be the custodian. I just want to make Perth proud.”
Perth Festival runs from Friday 6 February to Sunday 1 March. Lotterywest Films runs from Monday 24 November 2025 to Sunday 29 March 2026. General public tickets on sale at midday AWST on Monday 27 October.