Upcoming Festivals

Semi Permanent

Osaka Japan

1 — 5 November 2025

Tickets on Sale March 2025
Semi Permanent, the biggest and longest-running creativity and design cultural platform in the Southern Hemisphere, is making its highly anticipated debut in Osaka, Japan, from November 1-5, 2025. Since its launch in Sydney in 2002, the festival has been hosted in Europe, Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States, and Australasia, growing into a global platform that unites visionary talent and forward-thinking brands.           

Past festivals

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9 — 10 November 2023

St James Theatre Pōneke Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand

The Art & Design Fair, powered by Squarespace, will take place on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th November 2023 at St James Theatre, Pōneke Wellington. Curated by Semi Permanent as part of its flagship Festival of Creativity & Design taking place across the same dates, the fair is a celebration of visual design practice and provides a platform for a broad range of creators to showcase their wares to the Aotearoa creative community. Trading Hours: Thursday 9 November 9:00am—7:30pm Friday 10 November 9:00am—4:00pm

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8 — 10 November 2023

St James Theatre Pōneke Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand

Semi Permanent Aotearoa, the country’s premier festival of creativity and design, is set to return to the country’s capital of Wellington. Taking place across two venues within the city, from Wednesday 8th until Friday 10th November 2023, the festival will welcome thousands of attendees from across the Asia Pacific region for three days of keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops and masterclasses that will serve to educate and inspire.

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24 August 2023

Royal Exhibition Building Naarm Melbourne Australia

Technology is evolving at a pace never seen before, but its most successful applications remain powered by human innovation. Never Permanent is a one-of-a-kind talks program that celebrates and explores the rich intersection of creativity and technology now – a timely reminder to embrace and leverage new technologies as a means of advancing our artistic vision rather than usurping it.

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1 — 2 June 2023

Gadigal Sydney Australia

The Art & Design Fair, powered by Squarespace, will return on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd June 2023 at Carriageworks, Sydney. Curated by Semi Permanent as part of its flagship Festival of Creativity & Design taking place across the same dates, the fair is a celebration of visual design practice and provides a platform for a broad range of creators to showcase their wares to the Australasian creative community. Trading Hours: Thursday 1 June 8:30am—9pm Friday 2 June 9am—3:30pm

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31 — 2 May 2023

Carriageworks Gadigal Sydney Australia

Semi Permanent Festival of Creativity & Design will return to Carriageworks as part of Vivid Sydney 2023, from 31st May through 2nd June 2023. Now in its 21st year, Semi Permanent will again bring together the creative industries from across Asia Pacific for three full days of inspiring keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, installations, and more.

This event has now passed.

11 May 2023

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4 — 6 April 2023

ArtScience Museum™ Singapore Singapore

Semi Permanent Festival of Creativity & Design joins the Audi House of Progress with a series of events to devise a blueprint for the future of our urban environment, presented in partnership with Audi. 

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19 — 21 October 2022

St James Theatre

2022 marks the 20th anniversary of Semi Permanent — a demarcation in the evolution of both our purpose and our organisation. A milestone like this triggers a moment of reflection, imploring us to look back on our achievements and mistakes as the things that helped shape where we are today. It begs us to look forward, too, challenging us to think about where we might be in another 20 years’ time, or at the least where we hope to be. After all, the future is a destination we can only get to by acknowledging where we come from, and deciding what to bring with us and what to leave behind.

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25 — 27 May 2022

Carriageworks Sydney Australia

As part of the 20th annual Semi Permanent Festival of Creativity & Design, we are pleased to present PERMANENT Art Book Fair. Taking place at arts venue Carriageworks, PERMANENT Art Book Fair is an opportunity to engage with and purchase publications from 30 of Australia’s most dynamic and innovative publishers, artists and designers. Although the talks program of the Semi Permanent festival is ticketed, PERMANENT Art Book Fair is free to attend open to the public across the three days of the festival, providing a unique platform in Sydney for the display and retail of books, magazines, journals, posters, art, merchandise and other artefacts.

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25 — 27 May 2022

Carriageworks Sydney Australia

Creativity and design festival Semi Permanent will return to our hometown of Sydney this May 25th-27th 2022, celebrating two decades since our launch. Taking place at arts precinct Carriageworks as part of Vivid Sydney 2022, we’re excited to present our biggest, most dynamic program to date, coupled with an enhanced visitor experience of workshops, panel discussions, performances and installations.

This event has now passed.

14 — 16 October 2021

Manarat Al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi

This October, the biggest creativity and design festival in the southern hemisphere comes to the Middle East for the first time.

This event has now passed.

12 November 2020

Aotea Centre

Semi Permanent Aotearoa. One day, ten hours, 27 speakers and performers.