HEAT Winter Arts Festival returns to Cape Town from 6–15 August with exhibitions, live music, theatre, comedy, dance and immersive film across the city.
If you’re looking for a reason to leave the house this winter, HEAT Winter Arts Festival is giving Cape Town plenty. Returning for its third edition from 6 to 15 August, the city-wide festival transforms galleries, museums and cultural venues into a packed programme of exhibitions, live music, theatre, dance, opera, comedy and immersive film.
Taking over Cape Town’s city centre, HEAT has quickly become one of the city’s standout winter cultural events, encouraging people to swap the cold for a dose of creativity while exploring some of Cape Town’s leading art spaces.
This year’s theme, Ctrl + Z, takes its cue from the familiar keyboard shortcut for “undo”. Across the programme, artists and performers explore ideas of revisiting the past, repairing what’s broken and imagining new futures, asking what it really means to undo harm in the real world.
Visual art remains at the heart of the festival, with 15 exhibitions spread across the city. Highlights include Dutch artist Thirza Schaap’s exhibition at Berman Contemporary All Women’s Gallery, which examines consumer culture and reuse, while SMAC Gallery presents a major exhibition of miniature artworks featuring artists including Marlene Steyn and Sitaara Stodel.
Visitors can also catch new work by Ayobola Kekere-Ekun at AVA Gallery, an exhibition by architect Peter Cohen at Aspire Art, and shows by emerging artists Tshepiso Moropa and Abdus Salaam at THK Gallery.
The festival extends beyond the gallery walls with a programme of live performances throughout the week. Music curator Quiet Life has assembled a line-up led by rising jazz and neo-soul artist Internet Athi, alongside performances from Mfazwe Yamwezi, Mishy Kope, Wren Hinds Band and Francesca Biancoli.
Opera UCT returns with Rewind, a production inspired by the festival’s Ctrl + Z theme, while the theatre programme features local productions including Gauteng (For Ebenhaezer) and Ghoema: Rediscovering the Journey of Me, alongside acclaimed Swiss theatre-maker Boris Nikitin’s Essay on Dying.
Elsewhere, audiences can experience Synthetic By Nature at the Iziko Planetarium Digital Dome, where immersive digital works explore the relationship between nature and technology. Dance company Baba Yaya presents Yazuke, inspired by the story of the first African samurai, while Comedy in Common returns with stand-up performances headlined by KG Mokgadi and Conrad Koch.
Whether you’re planning a gallery hop, catching a live performance or discovering a new artist, HEAT offers one of the most diverse cultural programmes on Cape Town’s winter calendar.
HEAT Winter Arts Festival
When: 6 to 15 August 2026
Where: Various venues across Cape Town’s city centre
Theme: Ctrl + Z
More info: www.heatfestival.org
