# Festival lands in Launceston 11–20 January  
# Tickets on sale now

Slovenia’s industrial pop pioneers and political provocateurs were the first ‘outsider’ rock band to be invited into North Korea and perform in Pyongyang. Now they’re coming to Launceston to take on *The Sound of Music*—and a few of their favourite things (sorry, sorry) from their back catalogue, reaching back to 1980—with experimental flair and boundary-smashing gusto.

Laibach will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things). They’ll then storm the Annexe Theatre all Sunday to unleash a couple of up-close-and-personal experimental performances, and deliver a talk on the revolutionary history of the band.

Northern Stage, Festival Hub, Inveresk

Annexe Theatre, Festival Hub, Inveresk

Laibach

Ludovico is a superstar, famed for his rippling, cinematic music and for playing a grand piano floating among icebergs in the Arctic. Here for us, he’ll perform his immersive new project, *Seven Days Walking*: a seven-part cycle released over seven months and inspired by a winter’s walk through the Alps.

#### Presented by Mona Foma in arrangement with Arts Projects Australia

Princess Theatre, Brisbane Street

Ludovico Einaudi

The LA beat-maker and party shaman returns with an electrified, psychedelic odyssey of jazz-funk, hip-hop, and intergalactic eye candy. 3D specs at the ready, please.

Flying Lotus 3D

Come one, come all, to our natural amphitheatre of rock and water (aka the Gorge) for a larger-than-life puppet extravaganza based on Alfred Jarry’s *Ubu Roi*: a wild satire of power and greed from nineteenth-century France, updated here for modern-day Launceston.
 
It’s a rollicking tale for the times—the story of a raging buffoon and wannabe dictator on a revolutionary rampage. ‘And it’ll be bigger than Ben Hur,’ says Festival Dad Brian Ritchie. But with more puppets and stuff, including performances by the local Launnie community and live music by Ritchie and his musical mates.

#### Writer / Dramaturg: Willoh S. Weiland  
#### Director: Sam Routledge  
#### Musical Director: Brian Ritchie  
#### Sound Artist: Dylan Sheridan  
#### Musical Arrangements: Dean Stevenson  
#### Band: Dean Stevenson, Emily Sanzaro, Spike Mason and Yyan Ng   
#### Puppet Maker: Bryony Anderson  
#### Costume Designer: Sabio Evans  
#### Onesie Designer: Adele Varcoe   
#### Cast: Kris McQuade, John Xintavelonis, Denni Proctor, Marcus McKenzie, Anna Barber, Lucy McDonald and Lauren Neal  
#### Puppeteers: Felicity Horsley, Shannon McGurgan and Rachel Ogle  
#### Props: Denni Proctor and Gabbee Stolp  
#### Producers: Mona Foma and Insite Arts  
 
##### This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications and the Arts’ Festivals Australia program and the City of Launceston Event Sponsorship Program

First Basin, Cataract Gorge

King Ubu

Amanda Palmer

Chai

The Native Cats

Evan Carydakis

Medhanit Barratt

+ More

Friday nights, industrial-pop-punk-jazz attitude, and joyful collaboration: these are a few of our—sorry, we’ll stop there. What we really want to say is: join us for a coming-together of extra special festival artists under one roof, all riffing on the Julie Andrews’ banger ‘My Favourite Things’. Expect unexpectedness; BYO cream-coloured pony.

Festival Hub, Inveresk

My Favourite Things

Palmer’s the patron saint of all things Mofo. Pianist, performer, punk cabaret star. Now she’s returning to our shores with her first album in ages: a grand manifesto of survival and empathy, and an extended audience with the artist and her piano.

Amanda Palmer will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things). And be sure to check out Palmer’s [Confessional](/program/amanda-palmer-confessional) in the Launceston CBD.

#### Warning: this performance contains adult themes and probably a bit of swearing

Amanda wants to tap the Mofo zeitgeist—specifically women, actually, locals and interlopers alike. She’ll set up shop in the middle of town and invite women to share with her their thoughts, fears and stories. And then, as if by alchemical process, transform these confessions into a new song and perform it live on stage as part of her other show at Mona Foma, [There Will Be No Intermission](/program/amanda-palmer).

Amanda Palmer will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things).

#### World premiere and Australian exclusive

Launceston CBD

What can we say. We love Kelly. We keep inviting him back. This time, the gravy-making raconteur of the Australian condition will perform a soaring new song cycle, alongside composer James Ledger, singer Alice Keath and Seraphim Trio, with piano, violin and cello from Anna Goldsworthy, Helen Ayres and Tim Nankervis. It’s all about birds—not just their song and flight, but as symbols of hope and freedom, luck and migration, and the poetry they’ve inspired. John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Judith Wright, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gwen Harwood and Thomas Hardy, set to new music by Kelly and his friends.

#### Presented by Mona Foma in arrangement with GWB Entertainment