Nine free events at Perth Festival 2026
Looking for flexible fun or something that will suit every budget? We've got it! You can build a full day to night festival with our free events.
From dance and art across the city to sunset music sessions at Casa Musica and watching the city light up with Karla Bidi. Here are the best free events to fill your summer schedule ...
1. Discover music by the river at Casa Musica
Celebrate local sounds and beyond at Casa Musica, our free family friendly riverside stage at East Perth Power Station.
From Thursday to Sunday it’s all about music, good food and better company as bands and DJs take over the riverbank. This year you can lean into First Nations-led rock with Selve, slip into some future-soul with Ngaiire, or catch Irish trailblazers Beoga alongside special nights from RTRFM, Lunar New Year celebrations at Under the Red Lanterns, and sets from artists like Ali, Kavisha Mazzella and Bobby Singh & Friends tracing musical threads from Europe to Indonesia and India.
Dates 6 Feb - 1 Mar, just rock up!
2. Follow the fire trail at Karla Bidi
Karla Bidi (Noongar for 'fire trail') is your invitation to the Festival. Each night, towering beacons of light transform the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River into a glowing pathway stretching from the hills to the ocean, echoing Noongar traditions of lighting fires to greet and guide visitors.
You can see the beacons from multiple points along the river or head down to the water’s edge to sit under the night sky and take in the soundscape and stories. No tickets, no seats - just you, the river and a city-wide artwork to dazzle your friends and family.
Dates 6 Feb - 1 Mar | 7.30 - 10:.30pm
3. Go gallery hopping!
See the Festival spread across the city with our vast array of exhibitions.
See our collection of cutting-edge commissions (Boorloo Contemporary) led by Aboriginal and First Nations artists. Each evening at East Perth Power Station, Bibbulmun Noongar / Budimia Yamatji artist Lance Chadd Tjyllyungoo’s paintings are brought to life as monumental projections and massive flags by Kait James turn the industrial site into an outdoor gallery.
Beyond the river, you can step into exhibitions like Birrundudu Drawings at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery or Awakening Histories at PICA, which gathers powerful new visual stories of place, memory and resistance.
Date 6 Feb - 1 Mar
Pictured: April Phillips, Body Place, 2024, Bankstown Arts Centre with Urban Theatre Projects. Photo: Jacqui Manning, Courtesy of the artist.
4. Sing your heart out at Up Late Karaoke
Bring your friends and release some energy at Up Late Karaoke, The Embassy’s late-night sing-a-long.
Hosted by crowd favourite Adriano Cappelletta, it’s wall-to-wall bangers all night – think 90s R&B, power-pop belters and guilty-pleasure anthems you absolutely know the words to. Grab some mates and get ready to lean all the way in.
P.S. singing not compulsory and dancing is encouraged.
Date Every Fri and Sat night from approx 11pm
Starting 13 Feb
5. Picnic at Nitja
Nitja turns Dyoondalup / Point Walter into a big riverside show. Bring a picnic, grab your friends and watch the shoreline light up with live music, dance, storytelling and projections as the sun goes down.
It’s a relaxed summer night out that you’ll only get once this Festival, so make a plan to be there.
Presented by City of Melville.
Date 14 Feb, gates 5pm
6. See the bridge light up at Kwop Ben
Don’t miss Kwop Ben, a major new light artwork that completely transforms Boora Koort (Boorloo Bridge) after dark.
The bridge lights up with shifting colour and moving images, turning an everyday crossing into a must-see Festival moment. It’s easy to catch on your way to or from East Perth Power Station – just look up and follow the glow.
Dates 6 – 28 Feb, sunset to midnight
7. Take a night tour at Let Me In, Let Me Out
You're invited to a tour of Perth as you have never seen it before! Through a combination of projections and personal experiences, as told by artist Hugo Flavelle, Let Me In, Let Me Out highlights the inequality of access pervading city spaces.
This deeply engaging work transforms the city, using your perception to make a most meaningful and unmissable change of scenery.
Dates 24 - 28 Feb, from 8pm
Check the event page closer to the date for more location details.
8. Get in sync at Perth Moves
Perth Moves brings a full week of free dance action to Forrest Place, right in the middle of the city.
You’ll see The Perth Moves Dance Battle, a one-night showdown with DJ, MC and international judges as dancers of all styles throw down under the city lights. Concrete Echoes, which turns the square into a living choreography as performers weave through the crowd over several nights.
Don't miss CERCLES – together with a dozen professional dancers from Europe and Australia, Boris Charmatz transmits a collection of circle dances. CERCLES explores the circle as a cocoon, as a raging crowd or a wall of bodies – agile, determined.
This is the easiest way to catch big Festival energy on your way home from work or on a night out in the city.
Presented by STRUT Dance with Perth Festival
Date 21 – 28 Feb, various times
9. Go viral with A View From a Bridge
Strangers share, the world listens. A View From a Bridge is a global viral project from British artist Joe Bloom, and this Festival it’s all happening with Perth’s own bridges and stories.
All you have to do is follow along online as people pick up an old-school red phone, open up about their lives and slowly become part of a bigger picture as the camera pulls back to reveal the bridge, the river and the city around them. It’s a quieter kind of Festival experience - intimate, moving and easy to watch wherever you are – but only for this season, so add it to your scroll.
Follow us @perthfest – we'll be posting with @aview.fromabridge from 6 Feb.