Chamber music festival in the Southern Alps
QUEENSTOWN LAKES
3–16 OCTOBER 2026
The chamber festival pushing the thresholds of music: blurring, dissolving and entwining lines through masterfully crafted programmes, internationally acclaimed artists and awe-striking scapes. Join us in the Southern Lakes of Aotearoa New Zealand this October to connect At the World’s Edge 2026.
At the World’s Edge is the globally renowned chamber music festival in the heart of Aotearoa New Zealand’s mountain scapes. This year, a collection of the world’s most exciting national and international talents will once again transport you through seven powerfully woven programmes in Queenstown, Wānaka, Cromwell and Bannockburn, with free community events throughout.
As bounds and bridges, this year’s festival explores the line in all its human, artistic, and natural dimensions: boundaries and pathways, connection and division, limits and thresholds. Across seven programmes, music crosses borders of time, geography, and identity, asking what it means to hold a line, to cross it, blur it, and ultimately weave separate lines into something that could not exist alone.
More than a series of live music events, we are a platform for the arts in our region and a spark for creativity and connection to come. Explore the 2026 programme, meet the artists and take your seat At the World’s Edge.
Festival Performances
-
![]()
1 | Crossed
Sat 3 Oct | 4pm & 7pm
Rippon, Wānaka -
![]()
2 | Between
Sun 4 Oct | 2pm & 5pm
Rippon, Wānaka -
![]()
3 | Strung
Mon 5 Oct | 7:30pm
Te Atamira, Queenstown -
![]()
4 | Woven
Thur 8 Oct | 6pm
Cloudy Bay Shed, Cromwell -
![]()
5 | Radiance
Fri 9 Oct | 7:30pm
Te Atamira, Queenstown -
![]()
6 | Unbroken
Sat 10 Oct | 2pm & 5pm
Coronation Hall, Bannockburn -
![]()
7 | The Line
Sun 11 Oct | 2pm & 5pm
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 Aotearoa 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.
