Chamber music festival in the Southern Alps
QUEENSTOWN LAKES
3–16 OCTOBER 2026
AWE 2026 Festival Artist Performance Dates
Sat 3 Oct, Rippon, Wānaka
Sun 4 Oct, Rippon, Wānaka
Mon 5 Oct, Te Atamira, Queenstown
Thur 8 Oct, Cloudy Bay Shed, Cromwell
Fri 9 Oct, Te Atamira, Queenstown
Sat 10 Oct, Coronation Hall, Bannockburn
Sun 11 Oct, Te Atamira, Queenstown
AWE+ in Schools
12-16 Oct, Central Otago and Queenstown lakes
Full Programme and Festival Artists to be announced 1 May 2026
Until then…
AWE Festival
Chicago 2026
16-20 March
Each year, AWE presents a spring festival within the Northern Hemisphere. The AWE Festival Chicago is forging new creative pathways between Aotearoa New Zealand and Chicago USA - from the great lakes of Central Otago to the shores of Lake Michigan.
Across four programmes, AWE Chicago 2026 will follow music shaped by landscape and city, by migration and belonging, and by personal and collective history.
AWE’s US activity is presented by charitable entity At the World’s Edge Music Foundation Inc., a US registered non-profit.
AWE+ IN THE COMMUNITY
Our community threads into the very fabric of the AWE Festival. We believe everyone should have the chance to experience classical music in New Zealand, to be woven into the adventure and to experience the most intimate moments of music for themselves.
Through AWE+, a range of free curated performances and events are open to the public, showcasing local and international talent so that one and all can experience a part of the AWE Chamber Music Festival in New Zealand.
WHAT IS CHAMBER MUSIC?
Offering a new level of intimacy to live performance, chamber music is an interaction between individual voices. Written specifically for small groups of musicians, chamber music is designed to be performed, heard, and experienced in a close-knit, intimate setting, with the audience just as much a shared and active part of the experience as the musicians themselves.
