Cairns Performing Arts Centre (CPAC) — What's On, Venues & Visitor Guide

By Mia, our Cairns city & cultural beat.

For a long time the line on Cairns was that it was a reef-and-rainforest town with nothing to do after dark. That stopped being true in December 2018 when Cairns Regional Council opened the Cairns Performing Arts Centre — CPAC — on the corner of Abbott and Florence Streets. We have spent the last few years sending visitors to whatever’s in season, and the program has matured into one of the most genuinely interesting cultural offers north of Brisbane.

CPAC sits at 38 Abbott Street, Cairns City, a 6-minute walk from the Esplanade. It’s the white folded-roof building you’ve probably walked past wondering what it was. Inside there are three performance spaces — the main 941-seat Frank Moran Theatre, a 360-seat studio, and a flexible rehearsal room used for intimate performances and community workshops. The Box Office is open Monday–Friday 9am–5pm and most evenings before performances.

What’s on — the actual programming character

The first thing to know about CPAC is that this is a properly programmed venue, not just a hire-out hall. The artistic team curates a season that mixes:

• Touring productions — major Australian theatre and dance companies (Bangarra, Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Dance Company, Queensland Theatre) all routinely stop here
• First Nations work — CPAC has a strong programming commitment to local Indigenous artists and Torres Strait Islander work that you genuinely cannot see anywhere else in Australia
• Contemporary circus and physical theatre — Cairns punches well above its weight here; the homegrown Cairns Circus community has a regular performance slot
• Music — chamber, jazz, Indigenous contemporary, and the occasional big-name touring act
• Film, comedy, opera screenings, youth and education programming

The annual Cairns Indigenous Art Fair uses CPAC as one of its anchor venues each July; if you can plan a trip around that, do it. It’s the largest festival of its kind in Australia and the performances and panels at CPAC are consistently a highlight.

The Frank Moran Theatre — what the main room is actually like

The 941-seat main theatre is steeply raked, which means even the back rows have unobstructed sightlines. The acoustics were designed by the same team that did Sydney’s Recital Hall and the room genuinely sounds good for unamplified work — string quartets and small choral pieces don’t need miking. For amplified shows, the speakers are flown rather than column-stacked, so it doesn’t feel boomy.

The bar opens 90 minutes before showtime and the standard interval drinks-and-snacks setup is on. We’d recommend turning up early and using the upstairs balcony — the view across the city to the range is good at sunset.

Munro Martin Parklands — the open-air sister venue

Directly opposite CPAC is Munro Martin Parklands, an open-air amphitheatre that hosts free council-programmed shows in the cooler months (June–September). It’s where the after-work concerts, outdoor cinema nights and summer kids’ programming happen. The two venues are programmed together, so if you’re checking CPAC’s season, scroll down to the parklands listings — there’s often a free outdoor show on the same week you’re visiting.

Getting tickets and how booking works

Tickets are sold through Ticketlink (Cairns Regional Council’s ticketing arm) at ticketlink.com.au or in person at the CPAC box office. Most shows release seats around 8 weeks out; high-demand touring productions go on sale earlier. Cairns is small enough that locals know the patterns — book early for anything Bangarra, Bell Shakespeare, or anything in the Indigenous Art Fair week.

Concessions are available for students, pensioners, seniors and groups of 6+. Wheelchair seating is on the main floor with companion seats; book by phone if you need it allocated. Hearing-loop is installed in the main theatre.

Parking, getting there, and the surrounds

CPAC has limited on-street parking and shares the Esplanade public car parks. The easier move is to walk — most Esplanade hotels are 10 minutes away on foot. If you’re coming from the beaches, the Sunbus 110/111 stops two blocks away on Sheridan Street.

The block around CPAC has become the centre of Cairns’ food scene in the last few years. We always book dinner before a show at one of the restaurants on Grafton Street or in the Crystalbrook Riley precinct. For broader recommendations on the city, see our full Cairns visitor guide and the running list of Cairns dining we keep updated.

Worth a visit even without a show booked?

The CPAC foyers double as a free public art space during the day — there’s usually a rotating exhibition of work by local artists, often connected to whatever’s on stage that season. The cafe in the foyer is open through the day for coffee and lunch, and the building itself is worth a look for the architecture (the “folded paper” roofline is by Cox Architecture and references the regional rainforest canopy).

If you’re planning a city day, pair CPAC with the Cairns Art Gallery (3 blocks away), the Cairns Museum, and an evening on the Esplanade lagoon. That’s a full day of indoor culture that takes the heat out of a tropical afternoon and gives you something other than the standard reef-day itinerary. For a wider look at what locals actually do in town, our things to do in Cairns guide stays current.

Practical details

• Address: 38 Abbott Street, Cairns City QLD 4870
• Opened: 15 December 2018
• Owned and programmed by: Cairns Regional Council
• Box Office: Mon–Fri 9am–5pm + evenings before performances
• Capacities: Frank Moran Theatre 941; Studio 360; Rehearsal Room ~120
• Ticketing: Through Ticketlink (Cairns Regional Council)
• Accessibility: Wheelchair seating + companion seats; hearing loop in main theatre

Official venue site: the Cairns Regional Council CPAC pages hold the live programme. For ticketing the direct link is the Ticketlink calendar, where you can filter by venue and date.