Bundanon Announces Full Program for Make Good Festival 2026

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Bundanon has today revealed the program for the second iteration of Make Good Festival, a two-day ideas festival championing creative minds and practical action, running from 30–31 May 2026.

Curated by Guest Artistic Director Danielle Harvey (Festival of Dangerous Ideas), this year's program features an inspiring lineup of artists, authors, doers and makers for a weekend of talks, performances, workshops and hands-on experiences, that explore bold ways to shape the world we want to live in.

Highlights from the program include the world premiere of RISE by Australian Dance Theatre on Saturday 30 May, a site-responsive dawn performance celebrating community and the rhythms of Country, with dancers moving through Bundanon's landscape, created by Artistic Director and Wiradjuri man Daniel Riley.

Collaborative conceptual artists Joe Wilson and Chanelle Collier will perform Farewell Tour on Saturday 30 May, an experimental music performance offering a cathartic response to grief, arising from Collier's Stage 4 cancer diagnosis in 2023. Also on Saturday, Queer PowerPoint bring their cult hit performance series, reclaiming and queering the corporate presentation to share a current obsession.

On Saturday evening, renowned chef Darren Robertson of Three Blue Ducks, whose new Highlands venue opens in Burradoo in 2026, joins Bundanon's Executive Chef Douglas Innes-Will for a communal Twilight Feast. Grounded in the joys of shared-table dining, and produce that reflects the cycles of the land, the collaboration brings Robertson's culinary vision to Bundanon for the first time with a shared care for people, place and produce.

Make Good Festival 2026 also sees a strong lineup of speakers, with highlights including:

Celebrated social psychologist Hugh Mackay, and bestselling author of twenty-five books, including The Kindness Revolution (2021), The Way We Are (2024) and Just Saying (2025), a personal reflection on quotations from some of the world's greatest thinkers.
Rising filmmaker, author, and activist Jack Toohey, who came to national attention in 2023 with a viral video on housing affordability amassing more than 20 million views, and in 2025 published the book Better Things Are Possible, a call to action for a more sustainable and equitable Australia.
Clinical and forensic psychologist Ahona Guha, author of Life Skills for a Broken World (2024) and How We Relate (published in May 2026), and regular writer on relationships, mental health, social justice and equity for The Age, The Guardian, ABC and more.
Award-winning environmentalist Natalie Kyriacou, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree and Medal of the Order of Australia recipient (2018), speaking on science, politics and advocacy to confront the extinction crisis.
Renowned storyteller, writer, actor, and Play School presenter Rachael Coopes, sharing personal reflections on understanding forgiveness.

Three panel discussions anchor the ideas program:

What Death Can Teach The Living brings together voices from anthropology, art, and end-of-life care, in an honest conversation about mortality. Panellists include Hannah Gould, a cultural anthropologist specialising in contemporary death and religion, and author of new publication How to Die in the 21st Century (2026); Zimmi Forest, a fibre artist known for regenerative woven coffins made from noxious weeds; Amy Firth, a death care worker specialising in funeral care and end-of-life support, and artist Chanelle Collier.
Living a Creative Life, chaired by Bundanon Curator Boe-Lin Bastian, features multidisciplinary artist Liam Benson, floral designer and artist Azzmin Frances, and composer Leah Blankendaal.
The Power of Poetry sees acclaimed Noongar poet and author Claire G. Coleman, Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money, and Bundjalung-Gumbaynggirr writer and creative Dakota Feirer, in conversation with Bundanon Cultural Liaison Manager Jerome Comisari, reflecting on language, Country, and the political potential of storytelling.

A full slate of hands-on workshops run across the weekend, including coffin weaving with Zimmi Forest; an embroidery workshop with Liam Benson; beading with DIY Daisy; growing a bee-friendly garden with Alison Mellor; Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, with Azzmin Frances of Braer Studio, and more.

On Saturday and Sunday, an immersive outdoor performance The Endlings – directed by artist Al Stark of Esk Studio, in collaboration with Javanese Australian dancer and choreographer Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Aviva Reed will explore impermanence, collective grief, and ecological collapse. The Endlings ritual performance guides participants through a deep, somatic reckoning with loss, offering a space to feel, grieve, and reconnect to universal cycles of life, death, and interdependence.

The Providore Marketplace returns for 2026 presenting a curated gathering of regional producers, growers, brewers and distillers.

As part of Bundanon's Stay Weekend offering, guests can book an exclusive two-night stay on the award-winning Bridge for a fully immersive festival experience. The Make Good Festival Stay Weekend (29–31 May) includes a Friday night gourmet BBQ with fireside stories by a local First Nations custodian, the Saturday night Twilight Feast, tickets to RISE and four additional programs of each guests choice, a tour of the current exhibition season Sky, Earth, Water, and entry to the Art Museum and Homestead.

Guest Artistic Director Danielle Harvey said: "Make Good Festival is an invitation to pause and ask ourselves how we want to live. We've brought together some of the most compelling minds and artists working today, not just to spark ideas, but to show audiences what they look like in practice. Every talk, every performance, every workshop is designed to send you home with a new perspective, a changed habit, or a deeper connection to the world around you."

Bundanon CEO Rachel Kent said: "We are delighted to present Make Good Festival 2026, with an exciting program that sits at the heart of Bundanon's mission to connect, create and inspire. This year's festival brings together extraordinary artists, thinkers and makers to consider some of the most important questions we can ask: how meaningful choices and actions can enrich our lives, and the lives of those around us."

Make Good Festival is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.

Full program available at www.bundanon.com.au/makegood2026

Image credit: Jonathan VDK

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Bundanon Announces Full Program for Make Good Festival 2026

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