South Sydney neighbourhood Kogarah gets creative every year with the Uncontained Arts Festival. Taking over Belgrave Street from Friday, June 26–Sunday, June 28, the 2026 edition offers another jam-packed schedule teeming with immersive openair installations, interactive art, live music, delicious food and more. In fact, this growing event was nominated for Best Arts Festival at the Australian Street Art Awards. Primed for after-dark visits with the kids, over 25,000 people are expected to attend, seeking out the festival's inventive experiences. From live mural-making and soaring installations to eclectic on-stage performances, expect artistic expression, imagination and connection throughout this weekend-long event. In 2026, the festival program turns its attention to the intersection of sustainability, the natural environment and play, with the standout installations revealed so far including Erth Visual & Physical's 'The Nature of Things' — where Fauna, an inflatable puppet creature born from mycelium, speaks to nature's wonder with an urgent plea for care. Meanwhile, Kaleidoscope Dream will perform 'Afterglow', a high-energy, live LED drum show featuring some of Australia's leading session drummers. Besides an abundance of food trucks, spanning late-night desserts and incredible street-food flavours, other highlights on the program include 'Elysian' by Atelier Sisu, a series of colossal, glowing inflatable arches that transform the street, and the large-scale mural work of Spain's BEIS, whose expressive style draws from emotion, connection and storytelling to deliver a more meaningful kind of public art. Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox. Images: Supplied.
