Aotea Arts Quarter is alive and kicking as the city celebrates New Zealand Music Month, and welcomes the Auckland Writers festival, along with a range of other cool events that will keep you off the couch and out of the house! 

We’ve hand-picked a selection of events taking place across Aotea Arts Quarter over the next few months:

Auckland Writer's Festival

With 160 live events across six days from the 16 - 21 May, there is something to inspire everyone at Auckland Writer's Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki. The world's best writers and thinkers will descend on Aotearoa to help reset the cultural agenda and challenge the status quo. Make the most of the line up with Take 3, Take 5 or Take 10 ticket bundles. Full program and tickets available here.

New Zealand Music Month

This month is Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa - New Zealand Music Month with live performances on across Aotea Arts Quarter. Take a lunch break with a difference and enjoy a revolving cast of lunch time performances at Auckland Live at Lunch in The Civic. Listen to Julien Dyne Live, The Leonard Charles Group, and Romi Wrights & The Commotions. Participate in writing an original waiata with legendary singer songwriter Troy Kingi. Taking a genre and key lyrics from the audience, Troy Kingi will lay bare his music writing process in A Waiata in an Hour. View the full New Zealand Music month program and get your tickets here.

Midtown Street Party

Thursday 16 May | Midtown, Auckland City CentreMidtown is coming alive for 3 days of music as part of New Zealand Music Month! Check out the lineup of events scattered throughout Midtown, that will bring vibrant showcase of music and culture to the city.

Swan Lake - New Zealand Ballet

From the 9 - 12 May, enjoy the classic story of Swan Lake at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre. A perfect marriage of music and dance, Swan Lake is lush, romantic and instantly recognisable with a sweeping Tchaikovsky score.  With opulent costume design by Kristian Fredrikson’s and gorgeously lit by Jon Buswell, Swan Lake transports the audience from palace ballroom to lakeside. View times and tickets here.

Dawn French - Live standup show

Dawn French, the Queen of British comedy returns to the stage with her one-woman stand-up show. Prepare to laugh and be entertained by embarrassing stories that gives New Zealand audiences a peek behind the scenes of Dawn's work life - described as mini masterpieces of self-mockery. The show aims to encourage us all to be more at ease with our social awkwardness, our self-consciousness, our proneness to gaffes – to celebrate that shared idiocy rather than stage-managing Insta perfection for likes. Get your tickets here and prepare to laugh.

The Civic Tours

Tour the last remaining atmospheric theatre in the southern hemisphere with an entertaining and knowledgeable guide. The Civic Tours take visitors on a journey that spans almost one hundred years, from the venue’s inception in the late 1920s and heyday in the 1930s and 40s, bustling with showgirls, cabaret acts, and celebrities, through to the 1990s where the venue’s future lay in the balance before its glorious restoration to the iconic venue that breathes life into the heart of Auckland today. Book your tour today.

Dan Carter, The Art of Winning

Friday 17 May | Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre

Part of this year Auckland Writer’s Festival, Carter discusses with Duncan Greive how to evolve as a leader, empower others, forge a winning team culture and combine confidence and self-belief with humility to great effect. Book your tickets here.

NZ International Comedy Festival

3 - 26 May | Multiple Locations

The NZ International Comedy Festival is an annual highlight on Aotearoa’s arts calendar. Each year the festival showcases a lineup of local comedy and a taste of some of the world’s best. Venues in Aotea Arts Quarter are host to some of this year best acts, to find your tickets click here:

https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/find-a-show/

Ladies of Hip Hop

8 - 9 June | Aotea Centre

Get ready to groove and move at Ladies of HipHop NZ, the most exciting celebration of women in HipHop and street dance. Auckland Council, En Beat Dance & Rina Chae, with the support of Auckland Live, are thrilled to welcome Michele Byrd-McPhee founder of the original Ladies of Hip Hop movement in NYC to our Aotearoa soil.

https://www.aucklandlive.co.nz/show/ladies-of-hiphop-nz

Peter and the Wolf with Dynamotion

8 June | Auckland Town Hall

One for the tamariki. Prokofiev’s symphonic tale has delighted children for generations, and this special production gives it a Kiwi twist! Super-talented comedy dance troupe Dynamotion are back (following the success of 2023’s Carnival of the Animals) for another hilarious family friendly retelling of a beloved musical classic!

https://aucklandphil.nz/concert/peter-and-the-wolf-with-dynamotion/