Blip the Siren
Blip the Siren is a one-robot-band remixing audience voices into Cyborg Sound Poetry. Galvanizing live looping, beatboxing, psychedelic vocal techniques, and absurd audio fx through clown, Blip is a roving rave, improvising collaborative soundscapes from growling grooves to ambient ululations. Sing the body electric with Blip bellowing beats.
Chemistry Roller Crew
Chemistry Roller Crew are Tāmaki Makaurau’s dynamic, disco-dancing, daring, quad queens! They blazed a trail across the Naked Eye stage in ‘Cabaret Devour’ in 2024, & executed 8-wheeled pirouettes while you were picnicking in the sun on the Piazza stage. The Crew return for Splore 2026 with their thrilling skills and high-energy skater choreography, igniting Main Stage in this year’s cabaret show; M O R T A L - Fever Dream.
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His most recent accolades include being voted 4th most influential burlesque performer in the world by the 21st Century Burlesque, winning (again) the coveted 'Most Dazzling' dancer at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas '23, stunning the judges on France’s Got Talent, hypnotising the jury of Czech and Slovakia's Got Talent, winning the Swiss Crown of Burlesque in Basel, Switzerland (2018). He was the recipient of Best Boylesque New Zealand (2017/18), King of the New Zealand Burlesque Festival (2017), Grand Prix Award for the Le Bisou Français Festival Paris (2017), a Quarter finalist on France’s Got Talent (2023), a semi-finalist on New Zealand's Got Talent (2012), and was Mr Gay World (2013).
Flashing his glittered thighs and sparkling personality to all who encounter him, Chris challenges gender norms in life and art. His mission is to spread light and laughter to the world, one show at a time. Creating connections, braving new places, and creating spaces where visibility, conversation and acceptance of queer people through performance is celebrated and encouraged.
Walking the edge of an ever-expanding art-form, Chris Oh! celebrates the gift of life wherever he goes.
His body is his tool, his body will be your pleasure.
Chris Oh!
Cirque du Solittle
COME ONE! COME ALL! TO THE CIRCUS THAT IS VERY SMALL
A TINY BIG TOP!
A FULL-SIZE CIRCUS!
A SIGN OF THE TIMES.
THE SHOW THAT COMPROMISED ON SIZE , BUT NOT ON ATTITUDE
With high-flying trapeze with no safety net!
Real danger and silliness, real close up!
And if you’re not in the cheap seats you may even catch a terrifying glance, of Brian the Lion
Flame Entertainment
Passionate about providing uplifting inclusive performance experiences for all audiences, FLAME returns to Splore to entertain, inspire and connect. Look out for Surreal Sea-Beings, Dali-esque Curiosities and Magical Moths; wonder is wonderful and kooky is cute. From the magical and the madcap to seriously spectacular FLAME’s characters impress, charm and delight. Light up your event with Illuminated Characters, Stilt Performers, Fire Dance, Aerialists, Dancers, Living Tables, Body Art, Hula Hooping, Living Statues, Big Bubbles and Improvised Theatre with Elaborate Costuming and Performance Pizzazz. Based in Queenstown and Bay Of Plenty New Zealand
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Fair Play
Fraser Hooper presents a carnival of delights, featuring dancing horses, maypole mayhem, revolving doors, magical doves and potato juggling. It’s a cavalcade of comedy full of ridiculous routines where old school vaudeville meets new school clown from this world-class village idiot.
"He teases his giggling audience and the more he takes the mickey the more they laugh. A most charismatic clown.” - Time Out UK
Fraser Hooper
Free Hugs
Free Hugs is about sharing connection, aroha and space with all the diverse and amazing people who come to Splore. Whether you're young or old, able bodied or not, male, female or gender diverse, from New Zealand or the other side of the globe, Free Hugs is here for you ❤️
Free Hugs has been a Splore exclusive roaming act for 10 years, “I'm always motivated to keep hugging because I love Splore and love the awesome people I connect with every single year. When you see me, come get a hug!” 🤗
House of Coven
The Supreme and Illustrious House of Coven is Aotearoa’s first official ballroom house and a powerhouse performance art collective that has shaped the scene for over a decade. From legendary Kiki balls to groundbreaking stage works and community workshops, Coven continues to elevate the culture.
At Splore 2026, Coven is bringing the ultimate ballroom experience to the Main Stage - overflowing with essence, joy, and unapologetic brown queer self-expression and excellence. Get ready to feel the magic.
Kayla Paige
Kayla is currently Choreographer for World Of Wearable Art and director of The Conservatory, Aotearoa's latest and most innovative tertiary dance training facility. A choreographer, director, and witch of movement, Kayla is working alongside Splore’s Creative Director Emma Vickers, to cast her cinematic language across the main stage. Using embodied and intuitive movement and creative direction, Kayla will assist in threading each act together, turning disorder into ritual with the eclectic cast that is this year’s cabaret show, M O R T A L - Fever Dream. Alongside her roles At WOW and The Conservatory, Kayla is a sought after choreographer and creative director, activated in the dance, art, and entertainment industry both locally and internationally.
Letitia Lickkit
Hypnotic. Surreal. Crispy. Find calm and presence with Letitia Lickkit at her ASMR BAR! Returning with a whole new menu of mind-numbing ASMR triggers. Grab a pair of headphones and feel your being dissolve as you listen to orders of whispering, tapping, scratching, and crinkling all performed live. Some say it’s quite incredible. A sensorial transportation out of Splore and into another reality…
Oblivion Westwood
Oblivion Westwood is a unique, multi-skilled performer, with her brand of iconic, high-camp costuming, clowning and storytelling depth. From NZ, she has thrilled audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for three consecutive years and most recently returned from performing in Mexico. She is excited to bring to Splore her latest creation - Hanging by her hair.. and a bath time regime like no other. Be warned, this act contains Egyptian cotton towelling and big, bad bubbles. Rubber ducks may or may not make an appearance.
The Butterfly who Flew into The Rave
An electrifying non-stop dance performance of pure chaos and carnage. Experience a 3-day rave condensed into just minutes, with this spectacle of pure endurance. Indulge in the pain, the sweat, the cathartic mess. A spectacle of the human body as a victim to music, as a victim to passion, as a victim to our endless desire to achieve more. Fresh from mesmerising Australian audiences and completing an intense 23-show season in Edinburgh, this award-laden crowd favourite is here to spike your SPLORE nights.
Instagram|Oli Mathiesen 〰️ Instagram|Lucy Lynch 〰️ Instagram|Sharvon Mortimer 〰️ TikTok|Oli Mathiesen
The Conservatory
The Conservatory is an Auckland-based dance institution dedicated to developing the next generation of Aotearoa artists. Led by a collective of world class tutors, the company provides a training ground where emerging dancers explore movement, filmmaking, and storytelling through a professional, industry-focused lens.
At Splore, The Conservatory presents an excerpt from their upcoming short dance film Effective Immediately - choreographed by Kayla Paige. A playful yet poignant exploration of the everyday grind and the creative impulses that disrupt it.
The Dynamic Duo
With decades of combined dance and circus experience between them, The Dynamic Duo of Jodi Russell and Oli Craddock are bringing their jaw-dropping acrobatics to the Splore stage! Make sure to look up - they are most at home up in the air, leaving you speechless with their gravity-defying skills. When they’re not on stage, you may find them sharing the joy of circus with their students in their regular aerial classes.
The Paul Klaass Street Show
Coming in hot from Christchurch’s World Buskers Festival, Paul brings you his world famous street circus show! Big skills and even bigger laughs, this show is full-on fun for any festival goer. Seen all over the globe, from the UK to Europe to Japan, and now returning home to where it all began at SPLORE, come grab a seat and hold on tight, it's gonna be a wild & wonderful ride...
One of NZ's most decorated & celebrated circus performers, Paul’s 2025 UK summer tour saw him hold residencies at London’s famous Covent Garden, and Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Rock ‘n’ roll street show royalty, Paul is proud to present his unique, unhinged and unfiltered brand of live entertainment.
The Snacrobats
Snazzy Snacrobats Mel and Jesse are Auckland-based actors, acrobats and aerialists whose creative work blends theatre, circus and silliness! They’re excited to surprise Splorers with two splendid circus offerings; fresh from Christchurch World Buskers Festival, find them in ‘Cirque du Solittle’, squeezed into the Not-Very-Big-Top, the smallest circus tent in all the land, and two spectacular spinning aerial acts in the Main Stage cabaret show
M O R T A L - Fever Dream.
Tyler Nacho
Tyler Nacho is an artist from Los Angeles bringing a very special kind of PUPPET show! ‘Death to Realism’ is a dance party, a puppet show and a mystical experience. Magical thinking and comedy, infused with positive energy and motivational concepts, . An existential thought experiment about the ideas that you hold as true can often be holding you back, limiting you and keeping you from letting magic in.