Kris Nelson’s Sydney Festival celebration for a festival-loving city
2026 marks a major milestone for the city’s leading festival as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
For Festival Director Kris Nelson, the 50th edition is his first for Sydney. To celebrate both defining moments, Nelson is bringing his deep love of festivals, passion for ideas, storytelling and belief in the power of art to create a city-wide summer festival to remember.
We sat down with Nelson at Sydney Festival HQ, overlooking the harbour sparkling in the morning sun, it was the perfect backdrop for Nelson to share his vision for a stunning Sydney Festival 2026.
“I love this city. There's something that's magic about Sydney in summer. I’m really looking forward to seeing people with their sandy feet coming from the beach into a cool (air-conditioned) creative space, diving deep into amazing music, theatre, dance and hybrid culture, that celebrates our city, and connects us around the world.”
“Sydney Festival has shaped the city over 50 years. It’s helped create a festival-going culture and a city that loves festivals.”
Nelson’s own love and deep belief in festivals came from a career-long life in festivals and working with experimental artists for whom festivals provided the nesting ground, collaboration and partnerships they needed. “It started with the PuSh Festival in Vancouver as the intern with a van.” From there, he moved into producing and working as an artist agent, producing Magnetic North in Vancouver and Ottawa before heading to Dublin and London for what he describes as a transformative experience.
“In Dublin, artists were really leading the charge around the marriage equality and abortion referendums in a way that was getting everybody in the country talking. It was an incredible time and deeply rewarding. It stretched me a lot, taking me out of a focus on the avant-garde into something that has become my credo: making the experimental popular and the popular experimental.”
This credo has helped platform groundbreaking work created by Australian artists including The Second Woman, created by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon in London’s LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) Festival in 2023 which was a huge hit. “London lost its mind. The queue to get into the show was trending. Critics called it the best theatre of the year. LIFT had a team of seven and we made the city lose its mind! It was so rewarding”.
Having guided LIFT through perhaps its most challenging era with COVID and then Brexit, and the Dublin Fringe Festival during a time of profound social change in Ireland, Nelson is excited to create a playground of the imagination for festival-goers in Sydney.
Walsh Bay Arts Precinct is home to many of the city’s world-class spaces, and Sydney Festival will be bringing audiences to Roslyn Packer Theatre, Wharf 4/5, Pier 2/3 and spilling out onto the street, making the precinct a hub for bold theatre, dance, cabaret, music, live street performance and visual art.
“The spaces here are beautiful. The wharves are incredible architectural marvels. The harbour's right there, you're under the bridge, and there's this buzz stretching from Darling Harbour and Barangaroo along a stunning promenade along the harbour.”
“Opening weekend of the festival features Live on Hickson Road: Effectos Especiales by experimental Argentinian dance and theatre makers Grupo Krapp. It's this big street performance moving down the road, on the back of a ute with a film crew filming local dancers, full of melodrama, smoke and a rain truck. It's a bit camp, very fun, followed by a street party with a DJ.”
“Roslyn Packer Theatre will be our hub for major international theatre and performance.”
“We’re opening with Eun-Me Ahn’s Post-Orientalist Express. She is the incredible enfant terrible of the Korean dance scene. She is so punk, and a cultural icon in South Korea, having choreographed the World Cup opening ceremony.
“Major French production LACRIMA is a three-hour epic about the making of the wedding dress for the Princess of England; and Nowhere, an empathetic, beautiful solo show by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner, The Crown) is a memoir/anti-biography of his own history and awakening during the Arab Spring in Tor Square.
“ACO’s Nielsen Nutshell will be a place to encounter musicians in an intimate way. Audiences will get a chance to connect with Australian and international artists, many of them having their Australian debut.”
“STC’s Wharf 1 Theatre will host cabaret, with the lineup including Salty Brine, Ursula Jovich singing Nina Simone, Bogan Villea – the alter ego of First Nations LGBTIQ+ performer Ben Graetz.
“Beyond Walsh Bay, we’ll have beautiful artworks installed at Barangaroo’s Stargazer’s Lawn, [as part of the 2026 Blak Out program] entitled HELD by sculptor Lucy Simpson and we’ll close the festival there with Vigil.
“Then from Walsh Bay and Barangaroo, the festival extends to Town Hall, City Recital Hall, Carriageworks, Western Sydney and even Bondi Beach and Malabar Ocean Pool.
“It's a festival to cross town for.”
“Throughout the festival, there's a theme of generations - honouring 50 years of artists, supporters and audiences.
“There’s lots of stories of mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and all the richness of intergenerational expression with artists in their teens to their 80’s.
“This is the festival where we all converge. We're calling it, AlphaBoomer, bringing Gen Alpha and Baby Boomers into the same room.
“We've got the classics returning with Symphony Under the Stars at Tumbalong Park.
“This year, it's a big festival with something for everybody. You'll find your thing. I think that’s what festival-going is also about, discovering something new that you love.”
About Sydney Festival
Sydney Festival runs 8-25 January 2026. With over 75 free and ticketed events across the city, there’s something for everyone.
Visit www.sydneyfestival.org.au to plan your festival.