Australia’s regional touring weekends — where each company tours, and where to pair
For audiences in the capital cities, the regional touring circuit is one of the better-kept secrets in Australian performing arts — the same touring-quality productions that play the Sydney Opera House and the Roslyn Packer come through the heritage regional theatres in country towns at substantially lower ticket prices. For audiences outside the capitals, the touring circuit is the principal way the country’s flagship performing arts companies reach you.
Here is the running guide to where each major company tours, paired with the country-town weekend recommendations that make the regional cultural-tourism trip work.
The companies that tour the deepest
Bell Shakespeare tours every mainstage Shakespeare to roughly thirty regional venues a year — Albury, Bendigo, Toowoomba, Cairns, Mandurah, Mount Gambier, Geraldton, Wollongong, Newcastle, the Gold Coast and most centres in between. The Bell Shakespeare regional touring schedule is the deepest of any Australian theatre company by venue density.
Musica Viva Australia tours its annual international ensembles through approximately twenty-five regional venues including Newcastle, Wollongong, Toowoomba, Cairns, Mount Gambier, Coffs Harbour, Mandurah and the Gold Coast. The deepest regional chamber music programme in the country.
Australian Chamber Orchestra runs an annual regional subscription series at Newcastle Civic Theatre, Wollongong IPAC, the Gold Coast HOTA and Geelong Costa Hall — four cities, four concerts each, the same programmes that play the City Recital Hall in Sydney.
Bangarra Dance Theatre tours its main mainstage work nationally each year, including remote First Nations community performances. The Knowledge Ground education programme runs even more widely.
Pairing recommendations
Newcastle (NSW) — pair a Saturday night at the Civic Theatre with the Hunter Valley wine region (45 minutes’ drive). Stay at the Crystalbrook Kingsley in Newcastle CBD or one of the Hunter Valley estate-hotels. Best pairing: an ACO subscription concert with a Sunday lunch at Margan Wines or Tyrrell’s.
Wollongong (NSW) — pair a Saturday night at the Town Hall with the Illawarra coast — Austinmer, Thirroul and the Sea Cliff Bridge to the north. Stay in central Wollongong (the Novotel and Quest are on the harbour). Best pairing: a Musica Viva subscription concert with a Sunday morning at Austinmer Beach.
Toowoomba (QLD) — pair a Bell Shakespeare or Musica Viva visit with the September Carnival of Flowers (the country’s largest spring flower festival) or the Darling Downs wine and food region. Stay in central Toowoomba.
Cairns (QLD) — the standout regional cultural-tourism pairing in the country. Pair a CPAC visit with the Great Barrier Reef day-trip, the Daintree Rainforest, or the Atherton Tablelands. Stay on the Cairns Esplanade.
Geelong (VIC) — pair a Saturday concert at the recently rebuilt Geelong Arts Centre with the Great Ocean Road, the Bellarine Peninsula wine region, or the You Yangs. Easiest day-trip from Melbourne; comfortable overnight at the Novotel Geelong on the waterfront.
Albury–Wodonga (NSW/VIC border) — pair an Albury Bell Shakespeare or Musica Viva concert with the Murray River and the Beechworth-Rutherglen wine regions. Albury has its own regional airport with daily flights from both Sydney and Melbourne — easier interstate access than the Hume Highway drive.
Mount Gambier (SA) — pair a Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre concert with the Limestone Coast wine region (Coonawarra is forty minutes north), the Naracoorte Caves National Park, or the cape south coast. The country’s most distinctive regional cultural-tourism pairing for natural-environment travellers.
The booking strategy
Regional touring tickets are typically released three to four months before the local visit — significantly later than the capital-city subscription releases. The strategy: subscribe to your nearest capital-city company for the marquee productions, then book regional tour stops on the same productions when they release at half the capital-city ticket price. Bell Shakespeare and Musica Viva are particularly good for this approach because the same production tours for nine to twelve months and the regional dates are routinely six months later than the Sydney premiere.
Our running regional touring coverage is at Regional and Regional Touring.
