Things To Do This Month: Stand-Up Comedy, Street Art, Scrumptious Hot Cross Buns, and More

April is here and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s a month full of hot cross buns, public holidays (count ’em: three) and enjoying the last lingering moments of sun as the trees turn amber and embrace autumn.

There’s a lot to do and a lot to love about April in WA. Here are our picks of the best things to do.

Jump to:

• Festivals

• Theatre

• Art

• Food and drink news

Festivals and events in April 2026

There are so many events, food festivals and pop-ups coming to Perth this year. We’ve got heaps of them bookmarked – but these are the events happening this month.

• Fremantle International Street Arts Festival, April 3 to 6: Over the Easter long weekend, Fremantle becomes a stage for dance, circus and acrobatic performances. Last year, French dance company Compagnie Bilbobasso headlined the festival with the Australian premiere of Amor, a fiery pyrotechnic tango performance. This year’s program has just been released. Free entry.

• NRL Double Header, April 11: Attention all sports fans. On Saturday April 11, four NRL teams – the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Canberra Raiders, Cronulla Sharks and Sydney Roosters – are taking to the field at Optus Stadium for a huge day of rugby league.

• Illuminate Yagan Square, April 17 & 18: Illuminate is lighting up Yagan Square for the third year running with live performances and a constellation of artworks using light. This year’s display includes Pulse from artists Rachael Dease and Giorgia Schijf, which features cascading strands of light, and Guiding Creatures, a trio of larger-than-life illuminated puppets which swim through the crowd. Free from 6.30pm to 10.30pm each night.

• Subi Blooms x Gather presents The Light Within, April 17 to May 10: A free art installation at Market Square Park from artist Matthew Aberline invites you to wander through large-scale lanterns with bright floral patterns. Free.

• Perth Comedy Festival, April 20 to May 17: Four weeks. Five venues. More than 70 gigs. Head to the Regal Theatre, the Astor Theatre, The Rechabite, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre and the State Theatre Centre of WA for sets from Daniel Sloss, Josh Thomas, Matt Okine, Geraldine Hickey and more. Tickets on sale now. 

Theatre in April 2026

There’s so much great theatre coming to Perth this year, including these three hot shows staged as part of Perth Festival.

• RBG: Of Many, One: Heather Mitchell is a powerhouse in any role, but as Ruth Bader Ginsburg she’s the walking, talking, trailblazing “notorious RBG”. Mitchell embodies the US Supreme Court justice with a certain grace and quietness that makes you feel like the jurist is right there on stage. Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie), the one-woman play is an entertaining and emotional tour through RBG’s pivotal moments, from her teen years to her death in 2020. RBG: Of Many, One runs from March 19 to April 4 at Heath Ledger Theatre. Buy tickets here. 

• Pretty Woman: The Musical: Fall back into the 1990s in this adaptation of one of the most unlikely rom-coms to be given the musical treatment. Yes, a wealthy client still falls for the charms of a living-for-the-moment sex worker and promises to rescue her using the trappings of capitalism, but this time there are belting songs, such as I Can’t Go Back and Anywhere But Here. Samantha Jade and Perth-born Ben Hall play Vivian and Edward respectively, and you can guarantee the audience will chime in on “Big mistake. Big. Huge.” Pretty Woman: The Musical runs from April 18 to May 10 at Crown Theatre. Tickets are on sale now. 

Art in April 2026

There’s never a bad time to be an art lover in Perth, with killer exhibitions planned for 2026. But April is a particularly packed month. Here are our picks.

• Pippin Drysdale: Infinite Terrain: Fremantle-based ceramicist Pippin Drysdale has been working with clay for more than 40 years, and at AGWA you can see 400 of her hand-carved pieces in a major retrospective. It includes perfectly domed porcelain mounds painted in sunset oranges; delicate pastel vases with tiny bases and bulbous middles; and fingerprint-like curves etched into the clay that look like lines drawn in the sand. While they’re individually mesmerising, together they’re otherworldly. Pippin Drysdale: Infinite Terrain runs until April 6 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. 

• Brad Rimmer | Loom of the Land: Contemporary art photographer Brad Rimmer has captured the beauty, isolation and vastness of WA’s wheatbelt region in a series of photos taken over two decades. There are two new video works that focus on the stillness of abandoned wheatbelt town halls, no longer hubs of community connection. Brad Rimmer | Loom of the Land runs until April 26 at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre. 

• Pascale Giorgi | Worst Hits: One person’s trash is another person’s treasure, right? For Fremantle-based artist Pascale Giorgi, her artistic trash will become the central focus of a solo exhibition themed around the mistakes, leftovers and waste that come with being a multidisciplinary artist 10 years into her career. Worst Hits will reimagine Giorgi’s studio trash into new sculptural works. Look out for humorous vegetable shapes, replica neoclassical sculptures reminiscent of her Sculpture by the Sea artwork, and other motifs such as a mug with a baroque clown face. Pascale Giorgi | Worst Hits runs from until April 26 at Goolugatup Heathcote.

• Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it: Vibrant, joyful, utterly bonkers. The Paola Pivi exhibition at AGWA is surreal, super-sized and so good you have to see it more than once. The Hawaii-based Italian artist plays with perceptions of reality. In this exhibition, Pivi covers the walls with slogans in a font she designed, reading “Free Humans” and “Please don’t get a divorce”. Covering all three levels of the gallery, I don’t like it, I love it carries serious messages among the mystifying and marvellous creations. For instance, her dancing polar bears – decorated in blue, red and pink feathers – represent the fragility of the climate crisis. Other works, like Love addict – 999 trays filled with colourful liquid – are simply beautiful to behold. Paola Pivi – I don’t like it, I love it runs until April 26 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

• Attachment Styles: Modes of Belonging in Modern and Contemporary Art: With pieces plucked from AGWA’s 18,000-strong collection, Attachment Styles is a curious exhibition themed around therapy talk. Whether you identify as “anxiously avoidant” or “securely attached”, there’ll be a painting here that speaks to your soul. Frederick McCubbin’s Down on his luck, for example, has a hint of self-soothing. Stewart MacFarlane’s The border seems to depict jealousy or sibling rivalry. Then there’s John Nash’s The Bathers, with its lone individuals sitting in close proximity to others. Whichever one you relate to most, it’s clear these artists understand our deep-seated need to feel seen. Attachment Styles: Modes of Belonging in Modern and Contemporary Art runs until October 11 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Food news and new openings:

What we’ve covered recently:

• It’s the season! Here are our favourite HCBs in Perth.

• Fleur announced it would close after six years. You’ve got until April 25 to visit.

• Cyndal Petty wrote a guide to the best drink and snack combos for solo diners in Perth.

You might have missed:

•  If there’s one thing we love, it’s asking chefs to spill all their favourite recommendations. In March, we spoke to The Cool Room’s Drew Dawson and Jujube Dining’s Glenn McCue.

• Broadsheet photographer Danica Zuks visited Sculpture by the Sea’s 21st exhibition at Cottesloe and captured all the magic,  including shots of the three winning pieces.

• Feeling thirsty? These are the best bars in Perth’s CBD.

• And if you’re in the mood for pasta (who isn’t?), these are the 22 best Italian restaurants in Perth.

• Broadsheet columnist Becca Wang is teaching us how to host on a budget. This month, she shared her recipes and recs for a $50 dinner party for four, which only takes an hour to throw together.

Reporting by Emma Joyce and Chelsea Seale.