5 must-see events at Horizon Festival

The Sunshine Coast’s award-winning arts festival, Horizon, returns this weekend, 2-11 May 2025, bringing 10 days and nights of art, music, performance and more, set across the stunning landscapes of our region.

Here are 5 festival highlights to kick-start your long weekend!

1) Opening Night Street Party

Friday 2 May from 5pm | Ocean Street, Maroochydore

It’s a good ol’ fashioned, all-are-welcome, street party on Ocean Street, Maroochydore!

There will be live music, performance, food, bars, more bars, art everywhere, a big stage, a blocked road, and activities suitable for the whole family.

Ocean Street is the Horizon Festival Precinct for 10 days and nights – a fully activated street with a taste of all the program has to offer for you to enjoy and get lost exploring.

Bring your friends and family and experience a night full of program highlights, cold drinks, tasty food, and vast exploration throughout the depths of Maroochydore – from Solbar to Big Top Shopping Centre and beyond.

Free entry, register online.

2) Yauar Warai Wandi - Sing Dance, Gather

Saturday 3 May from 1pm | Stumers Creek Park, Coolum Beach

For the first time in over 20 years, under the cultural leadership of Lyndon Davis, Yauar Warai Wandi – Sing, Dance, Gather will bring together traditional dance groups from surrounding Gubbi Gubbi Country in a celebration of traditional dance, song, music, language, and storytelling.

Free entry, register online.

3) Skywhales Across Australia

Sunday 4 May from sunrise | UniSC Athletics Track, Sippy Downs

Experience Patricia Piccinini’s Skywhales Across Australia for the very first time in South-East Queensland!

Sculptures, designed in the form of hot-air balloons, touring from the National Gallery of Australia, will float across the dawn skies at the UniSC. Pack a picnic, bring the family, and enjoy the magical moment as the Skywhale family floats above the coast. 

4) Alex Hines: Girl Culture

Thursday 8 Mat from 7.30pm | Solbar, Maroochydore

Multi Award winning comedian Alex Hines delivers a new hour of camp, absurd, theatrical comedy. A dancing can of Diet Coke, a ballad in a hurricane and an immersive rollercoaster ride — Girl Culture is completely off its head. 

Hines exploded onto the Australian comedy scene with her original brand of comedy — fast paced fanciful narratives,  absurdist comedy and camp aesthetic drenched in 2000s Australian nostalgia. She has toured internationally and opened for Hannah Gadsby and Aunty Donna. Hines has made a name for herself as a unique comedic voice incorporating theatre, sketch, standup, songs and characters into her eclectic work.  

 If you’re hot, haunted or hanging by a thread — this show is for you.  

5) Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

Thursday 8 - Saturday 10 May, various times | Black Box Theatre, Nambour

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza is bold, brash, and non-conforming dance-theatre work that, just like a pop song, you can’t get out of your head.

A gateway for non-theatre audiences, this seductive work reflects a modern minefield of potential misrepresentations.  “Tony” confronts our awkward reality of responsibility through a choreography of discomfort, lack of coordination, inappropriate dynamics, and Elton John. Get ready to dance-off as if your life depends on it!