Don’t miss Horizon Festival 2026!
Horizon Festival transforms the Sunshine Coast into a living canvas, celebrating art, culture, and community across ten days. The festival is a rare convergence of First Nations storytelling, contemporary art, performance, music, and immersive experiences, with programs staged in iconic coastal locations, hinterland sites, and gallery spaces.
VAULT’s Editor-in-Chief Alison Kubler highlights the standout experiences that define Horizon Festival 2026 and cannot be missed.
The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave
May 3 | 7:00–8:30pm | Frankx Studio, Warana
From Aotearoa New Zealand, Oli Mathiesen joins Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer for an award-winning endurance dance performance set to the booming techno album Nocturbulous Behaviour by Suburban Knight. The work distills a three-day rave into an hour, translating the frenetic energy, ritual, and movement of rave culture into a high art context. Throughout the performance, three human bodies engage in a relentless cycle of motion, sweat, and endurance, exploring the physical limits of passion, desire, and obsession. Audiences are invited into a visceral, immersive experience, witnessing chaos and catharsis, rhythm and ruin, as a contemporary nightclub emerges on stage in its most concentrated form.
Image credit: The Butterly Who Flew Into The Rave. Courtesy of the artist.
Double Bill: Exoticism & Kuramanunya
May 8 – 9| Black Box Theatre, Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
This powerful double bill brings together two distinct performance works exploring identity, culture, and resistance. In Exoticism, Lucky Lartey and Vishnu Arunasalam interrogate “otherness” through a dynamic fusion of contemporary and West African movement, enhanced by immersive video and installation. Kuramanunya, by Thomas E.S. Kelly, follows as a moving solo tribute to ancestral strength, honouring First Nations histories, loss, and resilience through story and embodied performance.
Image credit: Thomas E.S. Kelly, Kuramanunya. Photo: Tristan Ronald Estevez Petuel. Courtesy of the artist.
Medicinal Plants
May 1 – 10 | 10:00am–3:00pm | Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve, Maleny
Explore Jinibara knowledge through an immersive journey into traditional medicinal plants. Guided storytelling, art, and interactive demonstrations reveal plant identification, extraction, and healing practices. This program provides an intimate encounter with Country, connecting visitors to centuries of cultural knowledge and ecological wisdom.
Image credit: Jennifer Kent, Lemon myrtle tree. Courtesy of the artist
BLAK OUT
May 1 – 10 | 10:00am–3:00pm | LANTANA Space, Caloundra
A First Nations-led exhibition merging visual art, performance, and workshops. BLAK OUT foregrounds contemporary Indigenous expression, amplifying culture, resistance, and creativity. From bold paintings to dynamic performances, the presentation underscores a thriving dialogue between tradition and experimentation.
Image credit: BLAK OUT
Picture Culture: Here & Now
May 1 – 10 | 10:00am–3:00pm | The Old Ambulance Station, Nambour
Curated by Jo-Anne Driessens, this photographic exhibition captures the cultural landscape of the Sunshine Coast, highlighting First Nations and diaspora communities. Through intimate portraits and everyday vignettes, the works celebrate identity, belonging, and the diversity of local experience.
Image credit: Ying (Laura) Li, Fire, Sea and Sand, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
Natalya Hughes: The Interior
May 2 – 10 | Mon–Fri 10:00am–4:00pm | Sat 10:00am–1:00pm | UniSC Gallery, Sippy Downs
Natalya Hughes’ immersive installation blends sculptural seating, hand-painted murals, and soft furnishings to explore gendered power dynamics, unconscious bias, and psychoanalytic space. Visitors are invited to inhabit a world where domestic intimacy meets analytical reflection, creating a space simultaneously playful, disquieting, and introspective.
Image credit: Natalya Hughes, The-Interior. Courtesy of the artist
Montville Timber Trail
May 2 – 3| 10:00am–4:00pm | Montville Timber Trail
A celebration of craftsmanship, design, and timber heritage. Visitors can participate in workshops, demonstrations, and exhibitions, exploring both traditional and contemporary approaches to timber artistry. The trail illuminates the intersections of technique, sustainability, and creative experimentation.
Image credit: Montville Timber Trail, wood working demonstration. Photo: Adam Friend
Local Contemporary Art Prize 2026 Finalists Exhibition
May 1 – 3, May 5 – 10 | Caloundra Regional Gallery
Showcasing forty contemporary artists from the Sunshine Coast, the exhibition highlights innovation across painting, sculpture, installation, and multimedia. The works reflect the region’s vibrancy, demonstrating the creative excellence that continues to define local contemporary practice.
Image credit: Sam Vatovey, Mount Emu Walk,2025, oil paint, oil stick, spray paint, 120 x 150cm. Courtesy of the artist
Icons
May 1, May 5 – 8 | Equity Makers, Sunshine Plaza, Maroochydore
Thirty artists living with disability present works that reflect identity, memory, and place. Icons elevate voices often unheard, emphasising the transformative potential of art to build community and reframe perceptions.
Image credit: Jesse Cameron, Sunkissed Sunshine Coast. Courtesy of the artist.
Across coastal and hinterland landscapes, Horizon Festival 2026 festival-goers can expect immersive encounters that are at once sensory, intellectual, and emotional, underscoring the Sunshine Coast as a thriving hub for cultural engagement.
