The Best Virtual Events to Hit Up If Cabin Fever Is Starting to Set In
Get 'out of the house' with live opera, gallery tours and couch choirs.

The Best Virtual Events to Hit Up If Cabin Fever Is Starting to Set In
If you're currently spending a bit more time at home than usual — because you're practising social-distancing or self-isolating — it doesn't mean you need to forego your usual arts and culture fix. Thanks to the internet, and many digitally savvy folk, a whole heap of your usual in-person events are now available online. Want to watch a live opera show? Can do. Head to a nightclub one night? That too. Learn to cook from one of the world's best chefs? Yep.
If you're starting to get cabin fever and are sick of scrolling through Netflix, hit up one of the virtual events below.
Image: Salon Gallery at NGV International, photo by NGV Photographic Services.
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Food & Drink
Bombay Sapphire: The Creativity Lab
Unleash your inner artist at one of these at-home gin experiences.
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Arts & Entertainment
Rhythm and Vines Live Stream
Watch the three-day music and camping festival from your living room.
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Arts & Entertainment
Visitors
This new Darkfield Radio production begins with a dead couple inviting themselves into your house.
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Arts & Entertainment
Documentary Edge Festival Features On-Demand
This collection of documentaries will be available on-demand until Auckland comes out of lockdown.
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Arts & Entertainment
Documentary Edge Festival 2020
This year's festival focuses on ongoing challenges, from crusading journalists to unstable politicians and UFO cults.
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Arts & Entertainment
'James and the Giant Peach' with Taika and Friends
Listen to the filmmaker read through the Roald Dahl classic — with help from Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Meryl Streep and more.
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Arts & Entertainment
Royal New Zealand Ballet: Giselle
The national company is offering free broadcasts of this quintessential romantic ballet.
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Arts & Entertainment
Livestrung Venue Fundraiser
A two-hour live-streamed fundraiser for Aotearoa's beloved live music venues.
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Arts & Entertainment
The 2000s Virtual Quiz
Test your knowledge on all that was great and horrible about the first decade of the millennium.
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Food & Drink
Keep Cooking and Carry On
Culinary legend Jamie Oliver is helping you level up your cooking game — for free.
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Arts & Entertainment
NZ Art Show Online
The country's largest sale of affordable and original Kiwi art is heading online.
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Arts & Entertainment
Chekhov's The Seagull
The Russian dramatist's first major play gets the online treatment.
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Food & Drink
Beer & Charcuterie Matching
Learn the ins-and-outs of cured meat and beer at these online tasting sessions.
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Arts & Entertainment
Royal New Zealand Ballet: Romeo & Juliet
The national company is offering free broadcasts of Shakespeare's classic love story.
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Arts & Entertainment
Virtual Art Fair
Auckland's huge annual art showcase is moving online for 2020.
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Arts & Entertainment
We Are One: A Global Film Festival
Twenty of the world's best film fests are joining forces to curate a free ten-day online festival via YouTube.
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Arts & Entertainment
Hot Dub at Home
Dance your way through the decades with this virtual biweekly party.
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Travel & Leisure
We Love the 90s Quiz Night
Put your 90s-loving brain to the test at this virtual trivia night.
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Arts & Entertainment
Royal New Zealand Ballet: ANZAC Salute
The national company is broadcasting two moving pieces to commemorate ANZAC Day.
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Food & Drink
Yotam Ottolenghi: Keep Cooking Simple
Watch the game-changing chef talk about the joys of simple (and super-tasty) food at this Sydney Opera House live-stream.
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Arts & Entertainment
Breaking Glass — Sydney Chamber Opera and Carriageworks
A free online world-premiere of a four-part opera inspired by mythology, Sylvia Plath and rare birds.
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Arts & Entertainment
The Virtual 'Star Wars' Quiz Night
Two and a half hours of unadulterated 'Star Wars' trivia.
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Food & Drink
Nonna Live
Learn how to make your own homemade pasta from scratch in an online class led by an 84-year-old Italian nonna.
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Food & Drink
Nigella Lawson: A Celebration of Home Cooking
Watch the culinary legend talk about the joys of home cooking at this Sydney Opera House live-stream.
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Travel & Leisure
Retrosweat VHS Workout Club
Shannon Dooley's beloved 80s-themed workouts are making their way to your living room.
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Arts & Entertainment
Better Living, Everyone 2020
An online music festival from the team behind Ōtautahi's cassette label.
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Arts & Entertainment
The New Zealand Dance Company – Virtual Classes
Learn the building blocks of dance.
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Arts & Entertainment
Shakespeare's Globe On Screen
Watch six of the Bard's plays performed at London's historic Globe Theatre.
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Food & Drink
Black Pineapple At Home Live
Learn how to make refreshing cocktails from common household ingredients.
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Arts & Entertainment
Fleabag for Charity
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s hit one-woman show heads online for charity.
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Arts & Entertainment
From Our House to Yours
Watch highlights — and never-before-seen footage — from the Sydney Opera House's 47-year history from your couch.
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Arts & Entertainment
Shut Up & Dance
Wellington's best-known dance crew is taking its liberating movement classes online.
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Arts & Entertainment
Iranian Women Short Film Night
This virtual film festival will feature seven shorts by top Iranian filmmakers.
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Travel & Leisure
Isolation Trivia: 'Tiger King' Edition
You've binged the Netflix series — now put your knowledge to the test.
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Travel & Leisure
Live-Stream: Sea Life Melbourne
The Melbourne aquarium is live streaming its sea creatures for all to see.
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Arts & Entertainment
The Shows Must Go On
Watch Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals for free on this new dedicated YouTube channel.
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Travel & Leisure
Goodnight with Dolly
The much-loved country singer is swapping her bedazzled jackets for pyjamas and her guitar for bedtime stories.
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Arts & Entertainment
Royal New Zealand Ballet: Hansel & Gretel
The national company is offering free broadcasts of the classic fairytale.
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Food & Drink
Southward Distilling Co Gin Tasting
Level up your lockdown with gin tasting in your living room.
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Arts & Entertainment
Silent Disco Glow-in-the-Dark Home Edition
This living room silent disco will feature jokes, positive affirmations and narration from Darth Vader.
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Food & Drink
Hospobaby
A series of kid-friendly cooking tutorials from one of Auckland's best chefs.
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Travel & Leisure
'Friends' Virtual Quiz
No one told you that watching endless television reruns could turn out this way.
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Arts & Entertainment
Te Papa: Online Jigsaw Puzzles
New Zealand's national museum has turned some of its collection into online jigsaw puzzles.
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Arts & Entertainment
Paintvine Online
The group painting classes are heading online and into your living room.
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Arts & Entertainment
National Theatre at Home
The UK's National Theatre is streaming a selection of its hit productions, with a new show available each week.
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Food & Drink
Quar Eye: Cooking Lessons in Quarantine
'Queer Eye' food expert Antoni Porowski is hosting leftovers-inspired cooking tutorials while in lockdown.
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Arts & Entertainment
Courtney Barnett and Lucius & Friends
Performing live from their lounge rooms, they'll be joined by Sheryl Crow, Sharon Van Etten, Fred Armisen and more.
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Arts & Entertainment
NGV Channel
The Melbourne art gallery is launching virtual tours of all its current blockbuster exhibitions.
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Arts & Entertainment
MSO Online
While Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is suspending all concerts with audiences for a month, it's now hosting an online concert series.
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Arts & Entertainment
Nightly Met Opera Streams
Stream a different opera from the famous NY institution every night.
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Arts & Entertainment
Room 2 Radio
Cut some serious shapes in your bedroom with this virtual dance party.
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Food & Drink
Massimo Bottura's Kitchen Quarantine
Catch nightly online cooking tutorials from one of the world's top chefs — while he's in lockdown.
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Arts & Entertainment
Virtual Cinematheque
ACMI and Melbourne Cinémathèque are hosting a weekly online movie night.
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Arts & Entertainment
Head On Photo Festival 2020
The internationally acclaimed photography festival is going fully digital for the first time.
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Arts & Entertainment
Couch Choir
Pub Choir's communal singing events are affected by the mass-gatherings ban, so it's bringing the sing-along into your home.