November in Canberra: top events in your city this month
Canberra's November is festival season: La Fiesta takes over the city centre on the 7th, Golden Days brings DJs and wine to the lake on the 28th, and Karnivool and San Cisco fill the last weekend in between. These are the thirty we'd actually message the group chat about.
Every pick below links to its live page on Keen, with dates, prices and the ticket link. The links retire once an event is done, so if one tells you it's been and gone, that's the truth doing its job. For the always-current version, what's on in Canberra is rebuilt from the catalogue nightly.
Cup Day, Tuesday 3 November
Not a public holiday in the ACT, which is exactly why a long lunch on a Tuesday feels like getting away with something. The race is 3pm here.
TAB Melbourne Cup and Big Dance Race Day
Thoroughbred Park, Lyneham · Tuesday 3 November, from 11am
The trackside version: fashions on the field, DJs and live racing in front of you while the Cup itself plays on the screens. One of Canberra's social days of the spring.
Melbourne Cup Garden Party
Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Yarralumla · Tuesday 3 November, 12:30pm to 3:30pm
The rose courtyard at the Hyatt, a seafood bar and three hours of frocks worth photographing. The dressy option.
Melbourne Cup at Public Bar Manuka
Public, Griffith · Tuesday 3 November, 12pm to 4pm
Champagne on arrival, three courses and the race on the big screen, $170 a head. The pub version with better food.
The big gigs
Golden Days Music and Wine Festival
Patrick White Lawns, Parkes · Saturday 28 November, 12pm to 10pm
A brand new one-dayer on the lake shore: big-name DJs, local wine and the kind of long lunch that turns into a dance floor by sunset. The pick of the month for a crew that likes a day out more than a seat.
Karnivool: In Verses Regional Tour
UC Refectory, Bruce · Friday 27 November · 18+
Off the back of a capital-city run, Karnivool take In Verses to the regions and count Canberra in. Their last Australian shows of the year, and that live show is the reason people follow them around the country.
San Cisco: Miles Away Tour
UC Hub, Bruce · Saturday 28 November · 18+
Nearly three years without new music, now a new chapter and a stack of fresh songs next to the indie classics. The kind of gig where the whole room knows the chorus.
Mahalia Barnes and The Soul Mates at Tallagandra Hill
Tallagandra Hill Winery, Gundaroo (about 30 minutes north, over the NSW line) · Friday 13 November
Powerhouse soul and blues out among the vines, from a crowd favourite who grew up on Ray Charles and Otis Redding. Sort a driver.
The Canberra Jazz Orchestra: Live at the Sands
Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra · Thursday 19 November, 8pm
Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr era swagger with a full jazz orchestra behind it. Dress up a bit, it would be rude not to.
Funk and Soul Under the Stars
The Courtyard Gardens at Mercure Canberra, Braddon · Saturday 14 November, 6pm to 9pm
The summer courtyard concerts are back: funk and soul in the heritage gardens with the garden bar open. One of the more pleasant ways to spend a Saturday evening in Braddon.
Candles, strings and high tea
Candlelight: The Best of Hans Zimmer
James Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia · from Friday 20 November, 6:30pm
Interstellar and Gladiator on strings, inside the gallery, from $42. A tribute to Adele takes the 8:30pm slot the same night.
Candlelight: Tribute to Taylor Swift
All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie · Friday 13 November, 6:30pm
Taylor on a string quartet in a small church, from $45. Stay on for Ed Sheeran Meets Coldplay at 8:30pm if one set of candles isn't enough.
Candlelight: Vivaldi's Four Seasons
James Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia · Saturday 28 November, 4:30pm
The one that started it all, from $44, and the sensible late-afternoon option before Queen vs ABBA at 8:30pm.
Brahms, Bach and High Tea at Lanyon Homestead
Lanyon Homestead, Tharwa · Saturday 7 November, 11am
Three Canberra Symphony Orchestra fellows in an 1860s drawing room, then high tea. A properly nice morning out, down past Tuggeranong.
Comedy, and one very sharp classicist
Marty Sheargold: The Red Card Tour
Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra · Saturday 14 November
Early retirement didn't take. A brand new stand-up show from a comedy powerhouse enjoying his fifties, bored enough to get back on stage.
Daniel Muggleton: White Here, White Now
Fun Time Pony, Canberra · Saturday 21 November, 7pm
One of the country's most in-demand comedians, in his own words despite no media attention of any kind. Rolling Stone called him a must-see at Edinburgh; the red tracksuit is coming to a small room near you.
An Evening with Mary Beard: Talking Classics
Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra · Wednesday 25 November, 7:30pm
What connects revolutionaries, dictators, Bob Dylan and Beyonce? The great classicist with a treasure trove of ancient gossip, on stage for one night. Easily the smartest Wednesday of the month.
Festivals and free days out
La Fiesta: Canberra's Latin American Festival
Latin American Plaza, Canberra · Saturday 7 November, 1pm to 10pm Free
Latin music, street food and dancing through the city centre, all free. Turn up for lunch and see whether you're still there at ten.
Canberra Kinetic Sculpture Race
National Carillon, Parkes · Saturday 7 November, 11am to 4pm
Human-powered contraptions built to cross land, sand and water, racing round the Carillon. Gloriously silly, and the same day as La Fiesta, so the 7th sorts itself.
Beer Day Out at the Fyshwick Markets
Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets, Fyshwick · Sunday 8 November, 12pm to 3pm Free
Plonk and the markets team up: free samples from breweries across Canberra and the country, right through the market stalls. Free entry, and you'll leave with groceries.
Diwali Mela Lantern Festival
Queanbeyan Showground, Queanbeyan · Saturday 14 November, from 5pm Free
A whole town out for Diwali, with a lantern parade once it's dark. Free, over the border in Queanbeyan, and worth the short drive.
Hall Village Christmas Fair and Street Party
Hall Heritage Village, Hall · Friday 20 November, 4:30pm to 8:30pm
A hundred-plus artisan stalls, food vans, a brass band and the heritage village open late. Christmas shopping that doesn't feel like Christmas shopping.
Craft, Pride and the galleries
Craft + Design Canberra Festival
Across Canberra · 5 to 15 November
Five hundred makers, exhibitions all over town and a theme of dissent. Two good ways in: the Undercurrent Design Market at Ainslie Arts Centre from Friday 13 November, and Canberra Modern's Dissent and the Griffins' Canberra tour on Saturday 14 November, $60.
Canberra SpringOUT Pride Festival
Across Canberra · all November
The capital's only pride festival runs the whole month. Queer Flicks at the NFSA on Thursday 5 November is a good first night: a drink before, a community favourite on the big screen, time to mingle after.
Canberra Qwire: Go West, With Love
The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, Queanbeyan · Saturday 7 November, 5pm
The queer choir's concert of favourites and newly commissioned works about geography, community and connection. A warm early-evening show, then dinner in Queanbeyan.
Rosalie Gascoigne
National Gallery of Australia, Parkes · all month, to 14 February Free
Found timber, road signs and the Australian landscape, in a major retrospective of one of the country's most original artists. Free, and the kind of show you can drag anyone to.
RELICS: A New World Rises
Canberra Museum + Gallery, Canberra · all month, to 31 January
Tiny LEGO civilisations living inside fridges, clocks and an old Beetle: a cryogenic wellness resort in a refrigerator, an energy revolution under a Volkswagen. Take the mate who claims to hate galleries.
Nights out that aren't a gig
Retro Silent Disco at the National Museum
National Museum of Australia, Acton · Saturday 21 November, 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Three DJs, three channels (80s, 90s, 00s) and the Gandel Atrium over the lake, $65. Nobody on the water can hear a thing, which is the joke.
Canberra Bushdance 2026
Yarralumla Woolshed, Weston · Saturday 14 November, 7:30pm
Live bush bands, a waltz-off and food trucks at the woolshed, $85. A much-loved local tradition, and nobody minds if you don't know the steps.
Reel Rock 20 Film Tour
Capital Brewing Co, Fyshwick · Tuesday 24 November, 7pm
The world's best climbing films on a big screen at the brewery, $21, beer in hand. If adventure is more your thing than ropes, the YETI Film Tour does eleven films in the same room on Tuesday 17 November.
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard: Canberra Premiere
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Acton · Saturday 21 November, 7pm
A cinematic odyssey built around the pair's collaborative album, then Mark Pritchard and animator Jonathon Zawada on stage for the questions. One for the headphones crowd.
The part where you actually go
That's the list. The gap between reading it and standing in one of those rooms is the same as ever: someone has to pick a date and make the call.
That's the job Keen does. The quickest way in is Find a time: pick two or three dates that could work, add an idea or two from this page, and drop one link in the group chat. Everyone answers from their browser, no app and no account needed. You see which date wins, tap once, and it's a real plan with RSVPs and a chat of its own.
And once your mates are on Keen too, it starts doing the noticing for you: everyone marks the nights they're free, and when yours line up, Keen tells you, along with what's on that actually suits the crew. No public holiday in the ACT this month, so the Cup Day lunch and the last weekend of November both take a bit of organising, which is the whole point.
November's thirty best excuses are above. Pick one, name a night, and send the message.
Start closer in. See what's on in the next few days, pick a night, send the link.
What's on in Canberra this weekendGet Keen free on the App Store or Google Play.
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