The Fremantle Biennale returns across three weekends from Thursday 13th to Sunday 30th November 2025, ready to transform the port city of Walyalup (Fremantle) into a dynamic canvas of contemporary art with its latest edition, SANCTUARY 25.
The major arts festival officially commences on Thursday 13th November with the opening event taking place from 6-8pm at the Manjaree Precinct (Bathers Beach) with a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony, performance by Wodoi & Jungun, Douzaine oysters at the Community Kitchen, artworks, and more.
Bruno Booth. Photo by Duncan Wright.
Across 17 nights this year’s biennial will present over 90 events and performances, featuring 115 artists across 25 commissions, including 19 world premieres. Audiences are invited to explore Fremantle’s streets, shores and structures through large-scale public artworks, installations, live performances, music, exhibitions and contemporary dance, many of which are free or low-cost to attend.
Reflecting on the launch of SANCTUARY 25, Fremantle Biennale Artistic Director and co-founder Tom Mùller shared:“Launching SANCTUARY 25 is a moment of profound significance. It heralds the beginning of another extraordinary Fremantle Biennale – a programme that brings together site-responsive works which activate our beaches, buildings and public spaces in ways that challenge, inspire and connect.
Since 2017, we’ve cultivated a platform that invites artists and audiences to imagine new ways of gathering, belonging and engaging with Fremantle. This year’s edition continues that legacy with a curatorial offering that is as ambitious as it is reflective of our community’s spirit.”
SANCTUARY 25 invites the public to engage with transformative art deeply rooted in place, community and Country. Since its founding in 2017, the Fremantle Biennale has become a platform for both local and international artists to create works that celebrate the unique cultural, social and historical fabric of Fremantle.The shoreline of Manjaree / Bathers Beach will be the major festival hub in 2025, transforming into a dynamic cultural and community space over three weeks.
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE
• Artworks, performances & special events including Vespers, Sonic Earth, Wodoi & Jungun, Sanctuary Within and more
• An ocean-facing Community Kitchen• Live music at Manjaree Music with performances by Banjo Lucia, Drea, and Mali Jo$e and plenty more
• A dawn til dusk sea-side Sound Sauna offering a sonic and heat experience
• Exhalation: An immersive transformation of the Whalers Tunnel• Jessee Lee John’s tiny state, The Commonwealth of New Bayswater, returns with its latest outpost: The Monastery
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
• A Predatory Chord: A powerful, reveberating sound and light installation by Australian-born, Iceland-based composer Ben Frost, featuring 42 suspended speakers and rhythmic lighting.
• Pool of Content: A surreal pink lake installation will flow through Old Customs House by Melbourne-based duo Wona Bae and Charlie Lawler, inspired by Western Australia’s neon pink natural wonders.
• Whalefall: The Fremantle Ports shed, a vast warehouse structure by Port Beach, will be transformed into a luminous, sonic tribute to the Sperm Whale through an immersive sound and light installation by Ben Frost and Tom Mùller. The shed is set for demolition next year, so this will be the public’s only chance to experience the work, which features over 100 drones, fog, and six mega speakers evoking the whale’s acoustic world.
• Room Service: Over 40 multi-disciplinary artists will take creative residency in the rooms, halls, balconies and washrooms of the historic P&O Hotel, responding to its rich history through new works.
• Sanctuary Within: A powerful, immersive celebration of maloya — the sacred improvised music, dance and ritual form of Réunion Island.
• Microfictions: A live, performative installation by international duo Hylozoic/Desires, in collaboration with Vessel, transforming the Naval Store into a poetic meditation on planetary change.
• Nepenthe: A multimedia project merging video game environments, installation art and ambient soundscapes by award-winning artist Lawrence Lek, named one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in AI (2024).
KEY VENUES
SANCTUARY 2025 will feature a diverse array of site-responsive contemporary artworks across key Fremantle venues including: Manjaree / Bathers Beach, The Whalers Tunnel, Old Customs House, the P&O Hotel, Victoria Hall, Princess May Park, Moores Building, PS Art Space, WA Maritime Museum, Coles Car Park, Port Beach Shed, and the Naval Store. Further afield, venues include Goolugatup Lower Lands, and John Tompkin Reserve.