Thursday, 12th of November

7:00pm-8:00pm - Festival Opening Concert - 'Songs of Disappearance - Re:sounding the Wild'
The Old Stables
Tickets: $5-75

The 2026 festival opens with a World Premiere from The Bowerbird Collective. Inspired by 'The Lost Words' project by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris in the UK, this program features brand new music co-composed and performed by Simone Slattery, Emily Sheppard, Yyan Ng, Anthony Albrecht, and Katie Yap, with lyrics by Australian poet Maggie Slattery. The project seeks to resound the names and stories of some of our most iconic, and most threatened, wildlife.

Friday, 13th of November

5:00pm-6:30pm - Sharon Field - 'The Scrolls - 3000 days...and counting' - Exhibition
Megalong Community Hall
Free Entry

Starting on Earth Hour Day (26 March) in 2022 with a commitment to continue until Earth Day in 2030, every day award-winning botanical artist Sharon Field is drawing and painting a species directly onto her Scrolls to “tell a story with a lasting visual impact”.

A stunning, active, archival artwork of extraordinary beauty, Sharon’s Scrolls are deeply moving and inspiring. They invite viewers to connect with how they feel about what is at stake from the Climate Emergency and the betrayal by the fossil fuel energy companies (and their financial and political allies) largely responsible for it. They are a powerful, timely call to action to preserve and protect invaluable ecosystems upon which all life on Earth depends.

The exhibition is free of charge, and will be open from 5pm-630pm on Thursday and Friday, November 12 and 13, and 11am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15.

Guests should park at the Megalong Community Hall, or walk on the short, marked trail from the Old Stables concert venue at Lot 101.

6:00pm-7:00pm - Conversation 1 - 'Oud Vibrations', music for multiculturalism - Joseph Tawadros with Gregg Borschmann

An internationally renowned oud player, fashion icon, Member of the Order of Australia for services to music, and recently donning the floppy hat while being awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by the University of NSW, Joseph Tawadros is the real deal. He has also become a fierce advocate for multiculturalism in Australia, racking up tens of thousands of views of social media for his musical commentary, in jingle form, on everyone from Pauline Hanson to Donald Trump. As our special musical guest of the Lyrebird Festival, Joseph Tawadros will be interviewed by Gregg Borschmann.

7:00pm-8:15pm - Concert 2 - Lotte Betts-Dean with Ronan Apcar
The Old Stables
Tickets: $5-$75

The Lyrebird Festival welcomes the "irresistible" Australian soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, performing alongside "firebrand" pianist Ronan Apcar, for a compelling program tracing the development and resonance of vocal composition. The program ends with Alice Chance's exquisite Salve Regina, with Lotte and Ronan joined by members of the Bowerbird Collective.

In demand throughout the world, Lotte has performed at Bayerische Staatsoper, Opera Holland Park and Grand Théâtre de Genève, Aldeburgh Festival, Oxford Song and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. 

Of this program, Lotte notes "Words and wordlessness, singing and sound, electronic and acoustic, classical and pop, the very new and the very old, the celebrated and the unsung — Ronan and I invite you into this time-travelling tapestry, a world of musical dualities. We are so delighted you have chosen to be here tonight."

Program:
Béla Bartók Eight Hungarian Folksongs, BB.47 No.1: Fekete föd (1907)
Madeleine Dring Five Betjeman Songs, No.1: A Bay in Anglesey (1976)
Caroline Shaw Rise (2018)
Courtney Barnett*+ Kim’s Caravan (2015)
Giacinto Scelsi Hô 1 (1960)
Barbara Strozzi L’eraclito amoroso (1651)
Lili Boulanger Clairieres dans le ciel, No.3: Parfois, je suis triste (1914)
Olivier Messiaen Poèmes pour Mi, No.9: Prière exaucée (1937)
Linda Buckley revelavit part 1 (2011)
John Adams Doctor Atomic, Act 1: Am I in your light? (2005)
Arnold Schoenberg Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, Op.15 No.3: Als Neuling trat ich ein (1907)
Clara Schumann Lieder Op.12 No.3: Warum willst du and’re fragen? (1841)
Björk Guðmundsdóttir*+ Jóga (1997)
Charli xcx/AG Cook*+ I think about it all the time (2024)
Josephine Stephenson Rosemary Lane (2021)
Erin Gee Mouthpiece 1 (2000)
Sinéad O’Connor*+ Jackie (1987)
Claudio Monteverdi Zefiro torna, SV.251: Ecco di dolci raggi (1638)
Isabella Gellis+ I wish I could speak to you (2021)
Luke Abbott+ Revelations of Divine Love (2023)
György Ligeti Harom Weöres-dal, No.3: Kalmár jött nagy madarakkal (1947)
Mathis Saunier Cannibal (2022)
William Bolcom Cabaret Songs Vol.1 No.4: Waitin’ (1978)
Blossom Dearie Touch the Hand of Love (1973)
Alice Chance Salve Regina (2022) with members of the Bowerbird Collective

7:00pm-8:30pm - Film Screening 2 - 'Down the Darling' & 'Two Men in a Tinnie'

Iconic Australian documentaries by the Leyland Brothers, John Doyle & Tim Flannery, these are must-sees for Lyrebird Festival guests to provide context for two of our Conversations. Produced 40 years apart, both of these journeys along the Darling River provide sobering insight into degradation of our major river systems, with a bit of dry humour and banter for good measure.

8:30pm-10:00pm - Wildlife Walk
Secret Megalong Valley Location
Tickets: Adults $20, Children $10

Join renowned local ecologists for an accessible night time walk in the Megalong Valley, where you might even see an extraordinary Greater Glider!

The easy-access location details will be provided to ticket holders closer to the event.

Please note: Cancellations due to weather will result in ticket holders receiving a refund.

Saturday, 14th of November

7:30am-9:00am - Birding Walk with Fiona Lumsden
Secret Megalong Valley Location
Tickets: $20

Join local wildlife artist extraordinaire and bird expert Fiona Lumsden on a guided morning birding walk.

The easy-access Megalong Valley walk location will be provided to ticket holders closer to the date. Binoculars, warm clothes and sturdy shoes are recommended.

9:30am-10:45am - Festival Hub, Performance - The Secret Life of Eels

Dive into the murky depths and uncover the secret life of Tasmania's short-finned eel. Spanning deep time to the present day, this immersive performance follows one of nature's greatest migrations from the tropical ocean near Vanuatu to the cool rivers of Tasmania. Blending original music, underwater sound recordings, visuals, science and storytelling, it explores our enduring fascination with these remarkable creatures.

Discover the eel's profound influence on human history, from the extensive eel aquaculture systems at Budj Bim to Aristotle spurring a 2,300-year search for their spawning grounds. The complex relationship between humans and eels continues to this day, with Tasmania’s modern hydro and export industries and recent first successful breeding programs in Japan.

With freshwater eel populations threatened in many parts of the world, we explore how we can best live alongside these mysterious creatures.

Performed by Where Water Meets (Emily Sheppard and Yyan Ng) with eel researcher Dr Malcolm Johnson, this show features the world’s first eel-skin instruments.

11:00am-5:00pm - Exhibition - Sharon Field - 'The Scrolls, 3000 days and counting'
Megalong Community Hall
Free Entry!

Starting on Earth Hour Day (26 March) in 2022 with a commitment to continue until Earth Day in 2030, every day award-winning botanical artist Sharon Field is drawing and painting a species directly onto her Scrolls to “tell a story with a lasting visual impact”.

A stunning, active, archival artwork of extraordinary beauty, Sharon’s Scrolls are deeply moving and inspiring. They invite viewers to connect with how they feel about what is at stake from the Climate Emergency and the betrayal by the fossil fuel energy companies (and their financial and political allies) largely responsible for it. They are a powerful, timely call to action to preserve and protect invaluable ecosystems upon which all life on Earth depends.

The exhibition is free of charge, and will be open from 11am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15.

Guests should park at the Megalong Community Hall, or walk on the short, marked trail from the Old Stables concert venue at Lot 101.

11:00am-12:00pm - Concert 3 - Alice Morgan x Ronan Apcar
The Old Stables
Tickets - $5-$75

Firebrand pianist Ronan Apcar and trailblazing saxophonist Alice Morgan, finalist in the 2026 ABC Young Performers Awards, join forces in a program that celebrates joy and ebullience.

Spanning a vast spectrum of repertoire ranging from film music to ragtime to jazz, the pair highlight their virtuosity in a showcase of music full of rhythmic vitality and vivid musical colours.

Program:

Gerard Brophy Yerevan Blues
Lauren Tsamouras Zeibekiko
Brad Mehldau When It Rains
Alex Turley Sonata
Alice Chance Lift Off
Holly Harrison Swivel & Serve
Robert Muczynski Sonata
Paul Stanhope phoSpheric Variations
Judy Bailey Colours of My Dream / The Spritely Ones

12:30pm-1:30pm - Conversation 2 - Habitat and Hollows, Melina Budden & Matthew Stephens with Gregg Borschmann
Festival Hub

Many of Australia’s unique gliders and parrots have been hit hard by on-going losses of natural hollows in old growth eucalypt trees since colonisation. Precipitous regional population declines in the past decade, especially since the Black Summer bushfires, have
pointed to a grim future.

So how are bushfires, habitat fragmentation and climate change affecting one of Australia’s most threatened mammals, the greater glider?

And what if it was possible to rapidly recreate a more natural ‘den’ hollow, bored into a gumtree trunk, unlike the more common nest box which sits on or alongside a trunk or branch? Believe it or not, such a process has been invented, creating 10,000s of artificial dens in woodland and forest trees across Australia, giving new hope to many threatened glider and parrot species.

Guests: Melina Budden, ecologist, founder Blue Mountains Wombat Conservation Group; Matt Stephens, inventor of the Hollowhog tool.

1:45pm-2:30pm - Performance - Improvising for Nature
Festival Hub

Three outstanding performers, Ronan Apcar, keyboard, Sola Hughes, violin, & Maria Zhdanovich, flute, musically interpret details from Sharon Field’s art installation, ‘The Scrolls: 3000 Days’

2:00pm-3:15pm - Concert 4 - Joseph Tawadros, oud virtuoso
Megalong Creek Estate
Tickets - $5-$80. Full price tickets include a beverage, with optional food add-ons at additional cost.

Joseph Tawadros AM is a leading Oud virtuoso, composer and 8-time ARIA Award winner. Born in Cairo, his chosen instrument, the Oud is an Arabic lute, the ancestor of the lute and modern guitar. Now based in London, he's returning to Australia this November for a series of spellbinding solo appearances.

A virtuoso of diversity and sensitivity, Joseph performs in concert halls worldwide and is known for his brilliant technique, deep musicianship, storytelling and joyous style of performance. Joseph’s drive to push musical boundaries has inspired collaborations with diverse performers and a solid repertoire of innovative, original music.

Don't miss this extraordinary performance at Megalong Creek Estate!

3:30pm-4:30pm - Conversation 3 - 'Worlds Reimagined', Professor Anne Poelina with Gregg Borschmann
Festival Hub

Life, Land, First Law & Culture in Modern Australia. Global and community leader, earth rights advocate, filmmaker and academic, Professor Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa and Warlunguru woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This promises to be a compelling conversation peeling back the layers encasing a personal life story of triumph, trials and inspiration.

Guest: Anne Poelina, Executive Chair, Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, Global Commissioner for the World Health Organization (WHO) Lancet Commission on Sea Level Rise, Health and Justice (2025–2028).

4:40pm-6:00pm - Film Screening - TBA
Festival Hub

6:00pm-7:00pm - Conversation 4 - 'Uncharted Territory', Professor David Lindenmayer & Jacqui Mumford with Gregg Borschmann
Festival Hub

Where to for wildlife with the arrival on mainland Australia of avian
influenza, H5N1 bird flu?

Waterbirds, seabirds and marine mammals top the ‘list of doom’, but they will not be the only species hit hard. Aided by vectors from pelicans and pigs to foxes and feral cats, the virus will eventually spread along continental shorelines and waterways deep into the interior.

Long under siege from feral invasion, bird flu comes on top of on-going unresolved threats to Australia’s unique biodiversity, including land clearing and climate change.

Guests: David Lindenmayer, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Australian National University; Jacqui Mumford, CEO, Nature Conservation Council of NSW

7:00pm-8:00pm - Concert 5 - Lior
The Old Stables
Tickets: $5-$80

Lior burst on to the Australian music scene in 2005 with his stunning debut album - ‘Autumn Flow’. Recorded and released entirely independently, and spearheaded by ‘This Old Love’ and subsequent singles ‘Daniel’ and ‘Autumn Flow’, the album became one of the most successful independent debuts in Australian history.

A swag of accolades followed, amongst them three ARIA nominations (including Best Male Artist), as well as Triple J’s prestigious ‘J Award’ nomination for Album of the Year. Subsequent releases ‘Corner of an Endless Road’, (2008) and ‘Tumbling into the Dawn’ (2010) were also a huge success, debuting at #2 on the Australian Albums chart and topping the Independent charts for several weeks, as well as earning the gifted songwriter a further three ARIA nominations.

Lior is known for his dynamic and moving performances, and has earned a reputation as one of Australia’s finest live performers. He is part of a rare breed of artists that has achieved a great degree of success and critical acclaim, whilst maintaining an independence and individuality in their craft.

Don’t miss the chance to see him in this one-off intimate show, joined by cellist Anthony Albrecht.

7:00pm-8:30pm - Film Screening - 'Iron Winter'
Festival Hub

In Mongolia's harsh winter, two friends embark on a daunting mission to protect 2,000 horses. Their journey becomes a test of endurance and a fight to keep ancient customs alive amid a changing landscape.

8:30pm-10:00pm - Wildlife Walk
Secret Megalong Valley Location
Tickets: Adults $20, Children $10

Join renowned local ecologists for an accessible night time walk in the Megalong Valley, where you might even see an extraordinary Greater Glider!

The easy-access location details will be provided to ticket holders closer to the event.

Please note: Cancellations due to weather will result in ticket holders receiving a refund.

Sunday, 15th of November

6:45am-7:45am - Sunrise, Music & Yoga
The Old Stables
Tickets: Free by registration

with Yyan Ng | shakuhachi

Join this self-guided sunrise yoga session and sound bath with the exquisite sounds of shakuhachi.

8:00am-9:30am - Birding with Fiona Lumsden
Secret Megalong Valley Location
Tickets: $20

Join local wildlife artist extraordinaire and bird expert Fiona Lumsden on a guided morning birding walk.

The easy-access Megalong Valley walk location will be provided to ticket holders closer to the date. Binoculars, warm clothes and sturdy shoes are recommended.

9:30am-11:00am - Kids Session - Nature drawing and poetry with Sharon Field
Megalong Community Hall
Tickets: $5

Join award-winning nature artist Sharon Field for a very special all ages class in nature drawing and poetry.

9:45am-10:15am - Performance, Festival Hub - Improvising for Nature

Two outstanding performers, Sola Hughes, violin, & Maria Zhdanovich, flute, musically interpret details from Sharon Field’s art installation, ‘The Scrolls: 3000 Days’

10:15am-12:00pm - Film Screening, Festival Hub - 'The Great White Whale'

An extraordinary tale of the first attempts to climb Big Ben on Heard Island, Australia's most remote outpost.

11:00am-5:00pm - Exhibition - Sharon Field - 'The Scrolls, 3000 days and counting'
Megalong Community Hall
Free Entry!

Starting on Earth Hour Day (26 March) in 2022 with a commitment to continue until Earth Day in 2030, every day award-winning botanical artist Sharon Field is drawing and painting a species directly onto her Scrolls to “tell a story with a lasting visual impact”.

A stunning, active, archival artwork of extraordinary beauty, Sharon’s Scrolls are deeply moving and inspiring. They invite viewers to connect with how they feel about what is at stake from the Climate Emergency and the betrayal by the fossil fuel energy companies (and their financial and political allies) largely responsible for it. They are a powerful, timely call to action to preserve and protect invaluable ecosystems upon which all life on Earth depends.

The exhibition is free of charge, and will be open from 11am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday, November 14 and 15.

Guests should park at the Megalong Community Hall, or walk on the short, marked trail from the Old Stables concert venue at Lot 101.

11:00am-12:00pm - Concert 6 - Mindy Meng Wang - guzheng master
The Old Stables
Tickets - $5-$75

Trail-blazing Guzheng master Mindy Meng Wang performs an extraordinary solo recital. A Chinese-born virtuoso now based in Australia, Mindy combines her elite training in Chinese traditional music with her profound technique and boundless musical curiosity to effortlessly cross cultural barriers, collaborating with everyone from the Gorillaz to Paul Grabowsky and top symphony orchestras. Conjuring sound worlds and colours from meditative to explosive, style-goddess Mindy Meng Wang will leave you awe-struck.

Mindy has won numerous awards including APRA Art Music Awards Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music in 2024, “Best Musician” at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards, and was named in the 2021 “40 Under 40: Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards”. She was a 2022/23 Artist in Residence at Melbourne Recital Centre - the first ever musician on a non-western instrument, and a 2022-2024 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow.

Mindy’s long-term vision is to create a strong voice for female composers and artists of Asian heritage, and more importantly, create a deeper and reciprocal musical connection between Australia and Asia.

From experimental to electronic pop to Western classical to jazz, Mindy says “I want to see if this instrument can do this. If I can do this. If you have 10 flavours of ice-cream, why don’t you try all of them?”

12:05pm-12:30pm - Performance - Vocal Edge Choir
Festival Hub

Enjoy one of the Blue Mountains’ premier choirs, an all-women 4-part ensemble dedicated to vocal excellence and fun.

12:30pm-1:30pm - Panel Discussion - 'China - An Ecological Civilisation?', with Mara Bun, Tim Buckley & Guy Williams.
Festival Hub 

Join some of Australia's most forward thinking nature stewards and China analysts, Mara Bun, Tim Buckley and Guy Williams, to explore the speed and scale of clean technology and nature restoration innovations taking place in China and what Australia can learn in pursuit of a more sustainable future.

1:30pm-2:45pm - Film Screening - 'Down the Darling' & 'Two Men in a Tinnie'
Festival Hub

Iconic Australian documentaries by the Leyland Brothers, John Doyle & Tim Flannery, with a focus on the Baaka Darling River.

2:45pm-3:30pm - Film Screening - 'Everyone, Everywhere, Everywhen', by Prof Anne Poelina & Prof Quentin Grafton
Festival Hub

A story of resistance, strength and actions in support of Living Waters, water justice and a better future for all.

This 37-minute documentary shares strength-based stories from three rivers, Baaka (Lower Darling River) NSW, Roper River, NT & Martuwarra (Fitzroy River), WA.

Produced in association with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, the film explores our collective identity and place in the world—extending far beyond Australia’s borders.

2:00pm-3:00pm - Concert 7 - Where Water Meets
Megalong Estate Winery
Tickets - $5-$65. Full price tickets include a beverage, with optional food add-ons at additional cost.

Don't miss the mainland-Australia premiere performance of Ashore, all to pieces, an immersive chamber-folk album, by Where Water Meets, Yyan Ng and Emily Sheppard. The album explores the idea of what carries us through longing, loss and regret.

Drawing on remote places as emotional landscapes, the music is anchored in Tasmanian stories, wilderness and place, unfolding from moments of intimate reflection into expansive, emotionally intense orchestral soundscapes. The program is inspired by the stories we carry, the poetry of Rumi, New Zealand playwright Violet Targuse, and John Cook's memoir The Last Lighthouse Keeper.

Forging a musical language entirely their own, Where Water Meets dissolve the boundaries between chamber music, contemporary folk and musical traditions from around the world. Violin, viola, guitar and voice are joined by cello, double bass, piano and banjo, alongside eel-skin instruments, kayamb percussion, Blu-Tack violin and alternate tunings to create a textural tapestry full of unexpected timbres and intricate musical detail.

3:30pm-4:30pm - Panel Discussion - 'Adaptation in the West Kimberley', with Prof Anne Poelina, Mara Bun & Guy Williams
Festival Hub 

As the strongest El Niño on record collides with a spike in ocean temperature, we are experiencing climate impacts which point to the urgency of adaption alongside mitigation. The West Kimberley Climate Adaptation Pilot is a pioneering indigenous led initiative as it nests nature restoration in the context of “Forever Industries” and introduces the first implementation of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists’ “Blueprint to Repair Australia’s Landscapes” at bioregional scale. Join nature champions Professor Anne Poelina, Mara Bun and Guy Williams to learn about an Indigenous-led initiative designed to build climate resilience for Traditional Owners, remote communities amd precious ecosystems in the West Kimberley.

4:30pm-5:30pm - Conversation 5 - 'Dying of Thirst', Professor Anne Poelina, Maryanne Slattery & Bill Johnson with Gregg Borschmann
Festival Hub 

After five years of relatively benign seasons and record rains and floods, an El Nino event was officially declared for Australia in June 2026. Now firmly established, the prediction is it will persist and intensify through the Spring and Summer of 2026 and 2027, possibly as one of the strongest on record.

So what does that means for Australia’s mighty rivers, from the Darling irrigating Australia’s bread bowl in eastern Australia to the still wild Martuwarra Fitzroy River in Western Australia? Promised water reform along the Darling has stalled, with marginal results at best, and in the west pressures for irrigated agriculture, fracking, and mining threaten scared sites and endangered wildlife along the Martuwarra.

Kimberley woman Professor Anne Poelina says the only way forward is for unity between indigenous and non-indigenous people to save landscapes. “Our story as indigenous people is that we are trying to preserve the land, the rivers and all this amazing culture for our fellow Australians, if not indeed the world because it belongs to the world, it is of that calibre of wisdom that needs to be recognised, particularly in terms of climate change and climate chaos”.

Guests: Professor Anne Poelina, senior custodian of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River; Maryanne Slattery, former Murray Darling Basin Director of Environmental Water; Bill Johnston, First Environmental Water Manager for NSW

5:30pm-6:00pm - Film Screening - 'Parasol Peak'
Festival Hub

Witness Manu Delago’s magnificent musical expedition up a mountain in Austria, performing original compositions with his band at ever more extreme altitudes.

6:00pm-7:30pm - Concert 8 - 'Festival Finale' with Joseph Tawadros and the Bowerbird Collective
The Old Stables
Tickets: $5-$80

Join the festival artists in an extravaganza of talent and musical vibrancy, featuring a program of original composition by Joseph Tawadros that includes unexpected instrumental combinations and a rare musical chemistry. Performers will include Joseph Tawadros, Simone Slattery, Emily Sheppard, Beth Condon, Anthony Albrecht and more.

Concert Program (original compositions by Joseph Tawadros):
Dreaming Hermit
Work
Constellation
⁠Sleight of Hand
Give or Take
Kindred Spirits
Eye of the Beholder
Permission to Evaporate
Constantinople
Point of Departure
Bluegrass Nikriz