OzAsia Festival, Australia’s leading contemporary arts festival engaging with Asia, opens from today spanning across four weekends till Sunday November 9.
In its 18th year, OzAsia Festival will spring up across the city, with events at Adelaide Town Hall, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Odeon Theatre, Pinky Flat, Elder Park, The Convention Centre and more. Tickets on sale now.
Showcasing the best of Asian and Asian Australian art, music, cuisine, literature and culture and featuring more than 200 local, national and international artists from 14 countries, OzAsia Festival is curated by Festival Director Joon-Yee Kwok: “I am excited to welcome everyone to the 18th OzAsia Festival. We are celebrating this milestone with an extended festival spanning four weeks with community events, exhibitions and performances across Adelaide. Whether you’ve been to OzAsia Festival before or are joining us for the first time, we can’t wait to see you.”
OzAsia Festival favourite, Lucky Dumpling Market, returns to Elder Park from today, serving up a delicious range of cuisine from the best local vendors accompanied by free live entertainment on the OzAsia Festival stage, kicking off tonight with a free Opening Night Party featuring live music by multiple ARIA-nominated artist and songwriter Mo’Ju. Don’t miss Sunset Sounds on the OzAsia Festival stage – an exciting line-up of musical guests from across Australia, and internationally from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Follow the spectacular 40 metre long Hong Kong Dragon lantern across the Riverbank Footbridge and see more than a dozen giant lanterns light up Tarntanya Wama/Pinky Flat for the beloved Moon Lantern Trail. A free, family friendly event featuring roving performances, giant puppets and delectable food from Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 October, this year, families can look forward to the new Moon Garden program with performances and workshops for all ages.
At Adelaide Town Hall, GRAMMY award-winning pianist Hiromi will join forces with multi-GRAMMY-nominated string quartet PUBLIQuartet to present a breathtaking blend of jazz and classical composition in The Piano Quintet for one night only on Tuesday 28 October, as part of her highly anticipated national tour.
Celebrating his 80th birthday, pioneering artist William Yang will reflect on his extraordinary life in Milestone at Adelaide Town Hall on Friday 31 October, exploring themes of family, sexuality, and culture with his signature humour and candour. Milestone is a joyous tribute to an Australian icon set against an exquisite score composed and performed by Elena Kats-Chernin with Ensemble Lumen.
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Kate Gould: “Congratulations to Joon and the team for putting together an exciting program of events celebrating OzAsia Festival’s 18th year. The 2025 OzAsia Festival is venturing into more venues and public spaces across the city and I look forward to welcoming audiences, and artists from across Australia and Asia to Adelaide to enjoy the festivities.”
At Her Majesty’s Theatre, The Special Comedy Comedy Special: Greatest Debate will be a hilarious night featuring Michael Hing, AJ Lamarque, Alex Lee, Lawrence Leung, Sashi Perera and Kushi Venkatesh debating “the new Australian dream is never moving out.” A night of real estate, rice cookers and repressed emotions, moderated by ABC Radio Adelaide’s Jason Chong.
At The Odeon Theatre Monica Lim and Mindy Meng Wang reimagine the connection between life and death in immersive, multi-artform performance, Opera for the Dead 祭歌. Also at the Odeon, Australian Dance Theatre continue to break new ground in their 60th anniversary year, with Two Blood – an OzAsia Festival commission.
At Festival Plaza, Singapore’s The Human T.H.E) Dance Company return to OzAsia Festival with Searching Blue, an outdoor performance tracing shifting relationships between people, places and passers-by, guided by Malaysian sound artist Kent Lee’s live music.
At Vitalstatistix, Ryuichi Fujimura’s trilogy of solo contemporary dance works will be performed together for the first time. A witty and moving depiction of a life in dance, the HERE NOW Trilogy.
At The Lab at ILA, Elsewhere in India: Return to Technopia is an immersive nightclub experience featuring electro-classical Indian music and surreal visuals, by transmedia artists Murthovic and Thiruda, featuring collaborations with some of Adelaide’s most exciting artists.
At Nexus Arts Venue, Spanish-Iranian duo Mohammad Miraghazadeh and Michel Gasco breathe new life into the ancient music of a vast cultural region that spans the borders of Iran and Afghanistan in Badieh: Music from Greater Khorasan; live cello, electronics and sounds of the Bornean forest meet storytelling and hip hop in seafaring epic The Offering (A Plastic Ocean Oratorio) by Omar Musa and Mariel Roberts Musa.
After a sold-out season at OzAsia Festival 2024, South Australian hip-hop artist Kultar Ahluwalia’s The Mixed-Race Tape is back at Nexus Arts by popular demand.
Nexus Arts also hosts Embarking on a Drift to the Unknown an audio immersive solo performance which merges soundscapes, fragmented memory, and archival media to explore migration, colonial legacies, and resistance.
In a poignant yet playful cabaret brimming with song and laughter, Rick Lau and Anna Lo celebrate their ancestral roots and honour the many lives and memories that make up Hong Kong in LauZone.
The Honourable Andrea Michaels MP, Minister for Arts: “For a remarkable 18 years, OzAsia Festival has been delighting and entertaining South Australian audiences with the very best in contemporary arts, cuisine and culture. Extended this year to run over four weekends and featuring an exceptional program of events across Adelaide, I would encourage everyone to get out and about and explore this year’s festivities”.
Celebrate Japanese pop culture at AnimeGO! on Sunday 26 October at Dom Polski Centre, and on Saturday 1 November, indulge in authentic Korean street food, K-pop performances and traditional games at Hongdae in Adelaide, a must for K-culture fans and foodies alike, at 12 Eliza St, Adelaide.
From November 7 to 9, audiences can enjoy thought-provoking panels, workshops and inspiring conversations at OzAsia Festival’s Weekend of Words with over 20 free events at Adelaide Convention Centre. Curated by multi-award-winning writer and comedian Sami Shah.
A vast array of visual arts will be on display throughout the festival, including solo exhibition UNITY by OzAsia Festival 2025 brochure cover image artist Victoria Garcia. Explore love and devotion in Asian art in Touching the Divine accompanied by Rakini Devi’s interactive performance The Female Pope at the Art Gallery of South Australia. At Adelaide Botanic Garden, take a journey across the land, water and skies of Singapore and the Malay Peninsula via 200-year old watercolours in exhibition Tails from the Coasts.
With plenty of free workshops, masterclasses, and talks also on offer, stay up to date on program details at www.ozasiafestival.com.au
Tickets on sale now at ozasiafestival.com.au and via Ticketek.
OzAsia Festival 2025 runs from October 17 to November 9.
Media kits with high resolution imagery, vision and show information here.