A year of planning and creative brainstorming is about to be put to the ultimate test.
New Annual 2026 is ready to meet its audience. Ten days of art, music and ideas in the heart of Newcastle.
But the city is more than a host for the annual festival. It's an active participant.
New Annual is informed by the city's coastline, its central business district, and the many and varied talents of its people. Newcastle stories are told in cherished locations.
And in 2026 the festival also taps into some of Newcastle's known and lesser-known subcultures, including the punk, ska and pub-rock scenes that have shaped the city's musical identity.
Last year's inaugural SOAK: Live at the Baths at Newcastle Ocean Baths is still being talked about. More than 9300 people attended free, family-friendly music events at the baths over four nights.
Tim Levinson (aka Urthboy and formerly of hip-hop group The Herd) is again curating SOAK's music offering with Newcastle creatives Kat Skoumbas and Matt Field.
Each event runs from 5.30pm to 6.30pm, taking advantage of the sunset and its soft pinks and purples.
Night one of SOAK: Live at the Baths (September 26) features the ARIA Award-winning hip-hop duo Hermitude and Newcastle-based DJ and Ode Label founder Claire O'Brien.
Night two (September 27) is a celebration of Newcastle's thriving jazz culture with some splashes of R&B, soul and industrial rock. Performers include Steph Russell, Grace Aberhart, Sophie Hawthorne, Freyja Garbett, The Illume Girls, Jayden Kitchener-Waters, Vienna LaPalma McVernon (Ponzi Scheme), Saylor (Saylor and the Flavor) and Pa777ience.
Gomeroi hip-hop artist and storyteller Kobie Dee features on night three of SOAK (October 2) alongside 92WRLD, an independent collective known for rich harmonies and soulful Pasifika sounds.
And night four (October 3) is all about the Central Coast's Karen Lee Andrews who blends soul, blues, gospel and rock with her Polynesian heritage to share stories of identity, resilience and connection.
"Last year we weren't sure how people would use the space for SOAK. Far more people swum than we expected. People were jumping into the water every night," Levinson says.
"People came along with their picnics, took their rubbish with them, and there was a magical feeling in the air."
Levinson has curated a diverse line-up of artists he hopes will appeal to all musical tastes.
"I feel that music is something like a gateway drug for all kinds of arts and culture. It's like a way in for a lot of people who may not identify themselves as 'arty'," he explains.
"Music is like a sporting event in that it brings a wide demographic of people together for one shared experience. It's a disarming way for people to spend time together and to connect."
And the logistics of staging live performances outdoors at the ocean baths? It's all part of the experience, and contingency plans are in place.
"The weather and the swell is a reminder of the preciousness of the environment, and why we should respect it. Nothing tells you more clearly what you can and can't do in a place than a huge swell. That's nature," Levinson says.
"We know that despite all the work we put in to these events, we're at the whim of the weather on that day."
From September 30 to October 3, the Playhouse is hosting a regret-filled love letter to millennial culture called AUTO-TUNE, by re:group performance collective.
The independent theatre group who brought POV to New Annual 2025 has this year turned its attention to Nokias, Silverchair, teen drinking and questionable decision-making.
AUTO-TUNE is, in the words of re:group's Mark Rogers, "strange".
It also won two awards at Melbourne Fringe in 2025, is touring nationally this year, and is a semi-autobiographical "gig-theatre" production drawing on Rogers' experiences as a teen growing up in Wagga Wagga in the 2000s.
Audiences are transported to 2006 where they meet Michael, a teenager with a time-travelling superpower - one where he can auto-tune away dumb statements, awkward pauses, and cringe jokes. But when Michael makes the biggest mistake of his life, will his auto-tune powers be enough to save him?
Rogers not only co-wrote AUTO-TUNE, he plays in the live band on stage for the performance.
"It's theatre but also a live gig that tells a story," he says.
"It's looking at the post-grunge period in Australia but also touches on nu-metal and pop-rap. There's a big mix of music.
"The show is about perfectionism, and about what value a mistake has in a world where mistakes are increasingly airbrushed and auto-tuned."
Up-and-coming Newcastle bands will perform a free gig in the Playhouse after each show: triple j Unearthed winners Trophy Wyfe (September 30); Glycerine (October 1); Filthy E & the Clean Teens (October 2); and Jetlag (October 3).
"We're stoked about the line-up: four young bands who are all going places," Rogers says.
"Our work, as re:group, inhabits the forms of popular culture and tries to find ways of making it theatrical and or experiential. It has this mix of something that's really accessible but is also theatrically daring.
"New Annual is one of the most exciting festivals in the country. I'm really looking forward to SOAK. Everyone I spoke to about it last year told me it was the best gig they'd been to in yonks.
"Newcastle's got something going on and it's great to see it blossom during New Annual."
Boudicca, No Reason, Bitchcraft and The Porkers are headlining a celebration of Novocastrian punk rock at Newcastle Museum on October 1.
The free, all-ages event is a trip down memory lane, with merchandise and footage from some of the city's most legendary gigs. There will be a DIY Alley where you can create zines, posters, badges and fashion, a human-sized claw machine, food trucks and a bar.
It's a full-sensory throwback and a tribute all in one. Newcastle Museum director Julie Baird is curating the event.
"As a museum director, you don't often get to roll up your sleeves and curate a program, but this is a labour of love for me," she tells Weekender.
"The hardest thing about curating NM:PM: PUNK! was keeping it to only four bands.
"The first thing I did was call a meeting which, in punk gig terms, meant taking a bunch of people to the pub to debate who would best represent the different eras of Newcastle punk.
"I called on band bookers, musos and avid fans to make sure we got the right mix of music. We tried to get bands that represented different eras of punk history in Newcastle so people could almost travel through time via the music, but we could have filled the museum for weeks."
ABC Newcastle's Anthony Scully curated the film element of NM:PM: PUNK!
"He has worked through years of old VHS tapes, digitising other people's memories as well as his own, to create an amazing film overview of punk gigs in Newcastle that you were at or wished you were," Baird says.
As for Baird, a punk-rocker from way back, working on this event has been a "full-circle" moment.
"I have been putting on DIY punk gigs for 43 years, starting in Canada ... from a 15-year-old lugging rented sound equipment to a church hall, through to a 58-year-old holding this enormous celebration. This seems full-circle for me," she says.
"I often feel more at home at a punk gig than in a museum, so to combine the two parts of my life throughout the years is an amazing opportunity.
"I have been to some amazing gigs in this city and I hope that this show will bring out memories and open up a new genre for some newbies."
NM:PM: PUNK! is, she says, is an all-ages event. But it will be loud.
"Museums often make dangerous ideas accessible. If you are punk-curious then we would love you to come and check out the hottest bands that Newcastle has grown. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool fan then the museum will be the weirdest element of the night," she says.
"When I found out last year that 2026 New Annual was examining subcultures, my first thought was 'What if I could use this opportunity to celebrate Newcastle's punk scene?
"This is not a scene that gets a lot of mainstream arts attention, however, punk is totally embedded in local scenes throughout the world. Punk by its nature looks at the world and comments through a local lens."
Bitchcraft formed in Newcastle with the need to tell stories of revenge, predatory dudes and regretful relationships. The band is coming out of retirement to perform for NM:PM: PUNK! Buckle up.
Boudicca is a thrash-infused hardcore punk-rock band from Awabakal and Worimi Country, and No Reason formed in 1989 in Newcastle with a sound ranging from punk rock to melodic and indie influences.
The Porkers story started in Newcastle when two young men decided, in a drunken stupor, to start a band. Neither of them could play an instrument. The Pork Hunts debuted at Bar Beach's infamous Ska Fest in 1987 and, in 1990, became The Porkers.
