Bondi Pavillion 2025 Artistic Program Announced
Bondi Pavilion proudly unveils its 2025 Artistic Program—a celebration of adventure, imagination, and connection.
After years of renovations and thoughtful renewal processes, Bondi Pavillion, which sits on the shores of the much televised Bondi beach, is getting its groove back after a successful 2024. Now its full 2025 Artistic Program has been announced, and it's one that focuses on celebrating adventure, imagination and connection withing the community.
Rooted in the natural beauty of its iconic seaside location, the program offers an extraordinary lineup of events designed to inspire audiences of all ages. Waverley Mayor, Cr Will Nemesh, emphasised the program's mission to bridge the gap between community and culture:
“Art is the purest expression of the human spirit—a timeless dialogue that transcends language, culture, and generations. Through this program, we are ensuring that arts and culture are woven into the very fabric of our community.”
Under the visionary leadership of Artistic Director Chris Bendall, the 2025 program promises to transform every corner of the Pavilion into a vibrant hub of creativity. From awe-inspiring puppetry and thought-provoking visual art to exhilarating cabaret and heartfelt theatre, the year’s events are arranged by seasons to help audiences immerse themselves fully in the offerings.
The program itself promises to showcase a celebration and commitment to highlighting the rich cultural landscape across Bondi, which makes it a location that thousands flock to. The program's particular emphasis on the wonders of the natural world will also be at the forefront of much of the entertainment throughout the year.
With highlights like The Whale by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Karla Dickens’ Rise and Fall, and the much-loved Bondi Festival, the Pavilion is poised to deliver a year of magic, mischief, and meaningful engagement.
We spoke with Bondi Pavillion's Artistic Director to hear more about what's in store of audiences across 2025. You can read the full conversation below.
2025 is described as “a year of adventure, magic, and fun at the Bondi Pavilion”. Can you share your overarching vision for this program and how you’ve woven themes of nature and imagination into the lineup?
Bendall: We have a unique venue at the Pav, situated right on the doorstep of Bondi Beach. It’s a multi-artform space, so we have something for everyone across the year, from new music, contemporary theatre, stunning visual art, cabaret, comedy, dance to author events. When curating the season, I wanted to ensure our offerings would be available to audiences not just within the four walls of our theatre, but break out right across the Pavilion, indoors and outdoors. So audiences will be able to experience events in the theatre, in our courtyards, our gallery, in our creative studios, out on the promenade and quite possibly in some nooks and crannies in the building that people didn’t even know existed.
I also love experiences that families can experience together, so there are a number of intergenerational events, where the whole family can come together. I have tried to bring together experiences that will ignite people’s imagination and that might encourage people to see the world a little differently.
We have an an ocean-loving community here by the beach, interested and invested in the natural world and our local environment. So our 2025 program is one inspired by and deeply rooted in nature. The season starts with an enormous ten-metre-long marionette sea creature landing in our courtyard bringing with it a fortnight of free events at the start of the year and I like to think this sets the tone for the year ahead. But the whole year sees animals and sea creatures woven throughout represented across all-artforms, and perhaps the season of Imagine Live, adapted from the Alison Lester novel exemplifies this with those two threads of imagination and nature coming together.
The preview hints at a rich variety of performances and events. Are there any particular shows or artists you’re especially excited to showcase this year that are new or unique?
Bendall: Well I’m excited by all of them of course! But there are a couple of projects that are going to be unique to the Pavilion next year which I’m particularly excited about. Firstly, there’s The Whale from Fremantle’s Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, with two weeks of free live performances combining puppetry, music and story aimed at audiences young and old. Its part of Sydney Festival, and this is a very new project. It’s the East Coast premiere, with its premiere season only a couple of months ago in Perth. So I can’t wait to share this one with audiences.
Then we have another fabulous puppetry company Erth spending two weeks with local young people to create a unique site-specific performance called Locus at the Pav in April.
Another highlight will be Walking Track from the incredible team at Karul Projects, a Queensland-based First Nations dance company, who will be visiting in October next year to create a unique promenade dance work with local First Nations dancers. Another outstanding First Nations artist who I’m very excited to welcome to the Pav is Karla Dickens, whose exhibition Rise and Fall in the Gallery is a response to the impact of the floods in Lismore and she will even bring her own twist to a uniquely Bondi icon as part of the exhibit – The Mermaid!
The Bondi Pavilion has been a longstanding hub in the community. How does this program aim to connect with and reflect the diverse Bondi community, as well as attract visitors from outside the area?
Bendall: The Pavilion really is a local icon and has been part of the community for nearly 100 years. Since the beautiful renovations and heritage restoration work was completed a little over two years ago, the Pav has really picked up steam in the number of events it is hosting, across all artforms, and is serving the community in so many diverse ways every day of the week. From free lunchtime concerts, to cultural entertainment and opportunities regular classes, dining opportunities – there’s always plenty of ways that community connects with the Pav, as you can see every day by the regular through-traffic of surfboards and skateboards and more passing through.
We’re also supporting the local creative community with our Local Creative Collaboration program which we just launched last year. We’ll be opening up opportunities through our next round of Expressions of Interest from this Wednesday 4th December, closing mid-February, for two-week creative developments opportunities in our beautiful studio space, the Yalagang Room. So if artists (across all artforms, including musicians, theatremakers, visual artists, writers) have a new creative project they want to explore, this is a key way that the Pav can support them.
The program is deeply rooted in the notion of natural environment. Can you elaborate on how the theme of nature is reflected in the works, and whether sustainability played a role in the program’s development?
Bendall: There’s quite a surprising number of animals and sea creatures featured across the many events, with whales, dolphins, penguins, dinosaurs, leopards, rhinos and more all turning up – whether that’s in Garry Starr’s hilariously funny Classic Penguins, or in The Last Great Hunt’s beautiful visual theatre work Night Night set in the Antarctic, the family show Pajamazon Jungle, Anna-Wili Highfeld Mating Dance where life-sized brolgas will hang in our Gallery, the gripping Shore Break a new solo performance by Chris Pitman, and even in our music program where Odette celebrates her latest single, Seahorses.
So across the season we’re weaving a conversation about the role of art in nature, how we can better understand and support our natural environment, and how we can celebrate our local environment and ensure its sustainability. Sustainability is a key driver for Waverley Council, Bondi Pavilion and our community. The Pav is actually powered by 100% renewable electricity at all times, including from a rooftop array of 217 solar panels!
More information on the full program is available at www.bondipavilion.com.au/whats_on
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