For three decades, Next Wave Festival has shaped the Australian arts landscape through imagination, bold ideas and passion for the new. Established in 1984 to foster creativity and experimentation, Next Wave’s focus has always been on the next generation of artists in a changing world. Career development, presentation opportunity and multi-disciplinary representation have been integral since our inception.


A Government of Artists

A government for disrupted histories, for radical kindness, for transcendent identities, for alternative cartographies, for unregulated beliefs, for emotional speculation, for the ideas, conversations and feelings that matter.

Unfortunately due to Covid-19, the 2020 Festival was cancelled. The team and the cohort pivoted astronomically quickly to deliver a suite of digital offerings, home deliveries and infrastructure takeovers.

View the Assemble, radioWAVE, and Festival programs here.