The Sunshine Coast’s award-winning arts festival – Horizon Festival – returns from May 2-11, bringing 10 days of art, music, performance to our region.

Visitors and locals can enjoy a vibrant program of 50 events across 10 locations.

Since its inception in 2017, Horizon has contributed $16 million to the local economy, employing 6798 creatives and attracting 319,192 attendees.

The festival also took out the Best Regional Event twice at the Australian Event Awards.

Festival highlights:

• Opening Night Street Party: The festival kicks off with a good old-fashioned street party in Ocean Street, Maroochydore, bringing you live music, performance, art, family activities and more.

• Festival Precinct – Ocean Street, Maroochydore: You’ll find a diverse collection of works nestled into streets, laneways and the Big Top Shopping Centre, blurring the lines between physical, artistic and digital realms. This free-to-enjoy Urban Gallery will feature inspiring work from visionary Queensland, Australian and internationally acclaimed contemporary artists, and is suitable for art lovers of all ages.  In the evenings, live at Solbar see BARKAA, C.W. Stoneking or Full Flower Moon Band as well as firsts for the Sunshine Coast including Queer Powerpoint, Electro House Wife and Eddie Ray – The Sequel and much more.

• Yauar Warai Wandi – Sing, Dance, Gather – Stumers Park, Coolum: Experience a historic gathering of traditional dance groups from Gubbi Gubbi Country, celebrating culture through dance, song, music and storytelling at Stumers Creek Park, Coolum. This event marks the first time in more than 20 years that such a significant number of traditional dance groups have come together, making it a must-see highlight of the festival.

• Supperclub Mapleton – Falls Farm and Mapleton Public House, Mapleton: Join artist Lowana Davies at Falls Farm for Catching a Whiff – a guided walking tour inviting you to follow your nose through the smells of Falls Farm. An amalgamation of science, performance, and olfaction – followed by a guided dining experience -a collaboration between exceptional chefs, regenerative farmers, and artists at Mapleton Public House.

• The Daily Muse (pictured) – Festival Precinct, Duporth Avenue: Led by Sunshine Coast based artist Alison Mooney and a changing roster of special guests, this unavoidable good news mural is created in response to current events in mainstream media’s daily news. Across 10 days, the wall will shift and change, with new artworks and anchor-news-puns everyday!

• Confashional – Festival Precinct, Big Top Shopping Centre: Confashional is a visual and interactive experience where salvation from fashion guilt is served in sacred, ritualistic doses. This immersive installation is part performance, part sacred space, dedicated to confronting the fashion waste crisis on the Sunshine Coast. Step inside the confashion booth – crafted from waste and discarded clothes – and confess your fashion sins. What’s your guilty pleasure? That unworn dress still hanging in your closet? The fast fashion impulse buy? No judgment here. Instead, receive a creative response that encourages reflection, redemption, and, most importantly, revolution.

• C.W. Stoneking – Solbar: Don’t miss the chance to see this acclaimed musician in an intimate setting. C.W. Stoneking blends New Orleans brass, traditional African percussion, and early 20th century blues, creating a unique sound that has captivated audiences worldwide.

• Hold Me Closer Tony Danza (pictured) – Black Box, Old Ambulance Station, Nambour: Hold Me Closer Tony Danza is bold, brash, and non-conforming dance-theatre work that, just like a pop song, you can’t get out of your head. A gateway for non-theatre audiences, this seductive work reflects a modern minefield of potential misrepresentations. “Tony” confronts our awkward reality of responsibility through a choreography of discomfort, lack of coordination, inappropriate dynamics, and Elton John. Get ready to dance-off as if your life depends on it!

• Electro House Wife – Solbar: Electro House Wife live electronic experience, by The Ironing Maidens, is the most fun you will ever have while thinking about the housework. Ingeniously adapting real irons and ironing boards into electronic instruments, this performance is a high energy, captivating explosion of dancing, visuals, wit, humour and steamy hot sounds. With house inspired tracks built from real world laundry sounds, The Ironing Maidens sound like an unbalanced washing machine. In the best way possible.

About Horizon Festival

Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosanna Natoli says Horizon Festival is deeply connected to place and is presented in collaboration with artists, producers, communities and Traditional Owners.

“Our flagship arts festival celebrates the stories and beauty of our special region and provides a platform for our artists to showcase their practice, while connecting and inspiring communities,” Mayor Natoli says.

This year’s program features internationally-acclaimed artists with much-loved local artists, displaying new work that has been commissioned by Council.

“Whether it is enjoying an arts experience at a hinterland pub in Mapleton or Kenilworth, the magic of Stumers Creek in Coolum, the urban streets of Maroochydore and Nambour, or the stunning coastline of Alexandra Headland, we invite you to explore our special region.

“Under the guidance of Gubbi Gubbi elder Lyndon Davis, Horizon’s signature Dawn Awakening event, has evolved to become Yauar Warai Wandi – Sing, Dance, Gather.

“Now spanning a full afternoon culminating at sunset, visitors will experience a historic gathering of traditional dance groups from surrounding Gubbi Gubbi Country, in a celebration of traditional dance, song, music, language and storytelling at Stumers Creek Park, Coolum.

“This event marks the first time in more than 20 years that such a significant number of traditional dance groups have come together, making it a must-see highlight of the festival.”

The Horizon program

Horizon Creative Director Megan Rowland says at its heart, the festival celebrates the intersections of art, people, and place.

“This year, we embrace hope – not as wishful thinking, rather as a force for change,” Megan says.

“Through collective action and creative expression, we reimagine what’s possible.

“Expect live music in unexpected places, dance that moves you, art and technology, exhibitions and installations, events for the whole family, bespoke food experiences and more.”

For program information and to get tickets, festival updates and behind the scenes info, head to horizonfestival.com.au and follow @horizonartfest on socials.