Chamber music festival in the Southern Alps

QUEENSTOWN LAKES 
4–17 OCTOBER 2025

Tickets on sale 1 June 2025

Where classical and contemporary collide against awe-inspiring scapes. Where masterfully curated programmes and internationally acclaimed artists take you on a journey through music and mountains, time and place. Join us at the chamber music festival inspired by its home in the Southern Alps of New Zealand this October.

At the World’s Edge is the globally renowned classical music festival in the heart of New Zealand’s mountain scapes. This year, some of the world’s most exciting national and international talents join us for seven curated programmes in Queenstown, Wānaka, Cromwell and Bannockburn, with free community events throughout.

With nature our muse and mountains our stage, this year weaves music with nature. As a source of inspiration, of structure, of creative energy, our programme explores the plethora of ways artists, composers, designers and creatives have drawn from the natural world. More than a series of live music events, we are a platform for the arts in our region and a spark for creativity to come.

Festival Performances

  • 1 | Intimate Voices

    Sat 4 Oct | 4pm & 7:30pm
    Rippon, Wānaka

  • 2 | Barroco

    Sun 5 Oct | 2pm & 5pm
    Rippon, Wānaka

  • 3 | Claviers

    Mon 6 Oct | 7:30pm
    Te Atamira, Queenstown

  • 4 | Orbit

    Thur 9 Oct | 6pm
    Cloudy Bay Shed, Cromwell

  • 5 | Reverie

    Fri 10 Oct | 7:30pm
    Te Atamira, Queenstown

  • 6 | Whorl

    Sat 11 Oct | 4pm & 7:30pm
    Coronation Hall, Bannockburn

  • 7 | Horizon

    Sun 12 Oct | 2pm & 5:30pm
    Te Atamira, Queenstown

AWE+ IN THE COMMUNITY

Our community threads into the very fabric of the AWE Festival. We believe everyone should have the chance to experience classical music in New Zealand, to be woven into the adventure and to experience the most intimate moments of music for themselves.

Through AWE+, a range of free curated performances and events are open to the public, showcasing local and international talent so that one and all can experience a part of the AWE Chamber Music Festival in New Zealand.

WHAT IS CHAMBER MUSIC?

Offering a new level of intimacy to live performance, chamber music is an interaction between individual voices. Written specifically for small groups of musicians, chamber music is designed to be performed, heard, and experienced in a close-knit, intimate setting, with the audience just as much a shared and active part of the experience as the musicians themselves.