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

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.  

On the night: collect your free 3D glasses from our merch stand near the Northern Stage. Available from 5pm.

Flying Lotus 3D

Your night begins at the Launceston Workers Club: plunge through the portal and into an industrial wonderland where you’ll celebrate high art and low, diversity and collaboration, and big dreams on low budgets. What a way to make a livin’.   

‘If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin’ words.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Our rhinestoned mascot for this eight-hour, nocturnal romp through the serious and the hilarious will be the most iconic of icons Dolly Parton, whose working-class, sex-positive twang was giving lip before intersectional feminism was even a twinkle in the media’s eye.  

For those who don’t know: the Workers Club is Launceston’s cosy-as-hell hideout where everyone who’s no-one goes for knock-offs and a great big dose of Launnie bonhomie. Expect salt-of-the-earth bar staff and salt and vinegar chips. Think sweethearts, warm nights, cold beers, hot pashes and hungover hickeys. Bring your grandma for a shandy.  

‘It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Turn up early for our big opener at 10pm sharp: a wild and joyous journey into the Dollyverse with cabaret powerhouses, local divas, big-ass brass and the Faux Mo queens. High camp and country meets Kath and Kim. Working nine to five meets werking hard for that bread. Working girls, working women, working moms and dads. Some of Tasmania’s most iconic singers will plump and prep you for the night ahead before booting you onto the dancefloor. From there, our international star DJs (from Uganda to Lisbon, Jamaica to USA) will make you werk, werk, werk: Kampire, fresh from the Nyege Nyege Festival on the banks of the Nile; DJ Marfox, the godfather of the Angolan-Portugese sound that has made the Príncipe label famous; Tygapaw, sonic destroyer of mainstream queerness; and more.  

‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Sophistication is so passé. Wear denim, wear lace, wear pearls and pastels. Wear cheap minis, scrunchies, diamanté-studded uggs and too much eyeliner. We want razzle and we want clamour. We want talking back, asking too much and being hard to please.  

‘My weaknesses have always been food and men, in that order.’  
—Dolly Parton  

By 4am, you’ll need breakfast. And we’re here to serve: croissants and hot coffee from Launceston institution Bread and Butter. You’re worth it.  

Stamina is required but we believe in you. You’re special. Dolly’s special. We’re all special.  

A manifesto from the Faux Mo team 

How to work from 9 to 5

Kampire joins us fresh from performing a knock-out, talk-of-the-internet set at the Nyege Nyege Festival, an East African electronic music party on the banks of the Nile. And now to Launceston, with Afro-house, St Lucian soca, Congolese soukous, gqom and more.

When she’s not exploding the electronic music scene, she’s collaborating with other artists on Salooni, a pop-up hair salon and art installation, and Pussy Party, a safe space for women and other minorities in Uganda.

Kampire

Born and raised in Mandeville Jamaica, performer and producer Tygapaw is on a mission to destroy the mainstream white narrative of queerness via techno, relentless club rhythms, and intimate vocal samples. Tygapaw also runs Fake Accent, a record label (go listen to her searing EP, *Handle With Care*) and underground party in New York celebrating queer and trans artists of colour.

Tygapaw

Prepare your brain, gird your loins: DJ Marfox is the godfather of Lisbon’s ghetto sound and a master of twisted, soulful and African-influenced dance music. (He’s basically the sonic manifestation of *batida*, the Portugese word for your thumping, adrenalin-drenched heart after a car crash.) Marfox is the third artist to grace us from Príncipe record label (after Nídia and DJ Niggafox) and he would’ve come sooner but he was busy cutting his high-art chops making music for the Venice Biennale’s German Pavilion.


DJ Marfox

Eartheater’s the pseudonym of multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist Alexandra Drewchin, and she’s here to spit sacred music from the future and bass-heavy siren pop. Think classical compositions on harp and piano blended with anthemic electronica and club rhythms that pull you into the deep.

Eartheater

Take us by the hand as we unveil a Dolly Parton stage show extravaganza at 10pm sharp. It’s a wild, feminist stampede through the Dollyverse: part deconstructed musical spectacular, part joyous community ritual of rhinestones, feelings and the following artists:

__Simone Page Jones__ – Dolly-lover, diva, cabaret powerhouse, and one half of country music duo Miles and Simone. She’ll command the bingo, boss the brass bands and make sure the dance moms have their denim scrunchies tight.

__Medhanit__ – Local diva returns to Faux Mo after a club-stopping performance with Nakhane at our last late-night party.

__Beatrix Bae Bouwman__ – Songwriter-in-hiding from the foothills of Mount Wellington and currently working on her second album, *River for a Crown*.

__Claire Anne Taylor__ – Born in a barn in the Tarkine rainforest, CAT is the west coast’s answer to Janis Joplin.

__Nicole Simms-Farrow__ – Tasmanian musical theatre star here to take on Dolly one note at a time.

__The Faux Mo Queens__ – Ana Thema, Kat Daddi, Misty Del Ray, Pussay Poppins and Rosa Rita are back to slay by popular demand. You want cheap, we’ll show you cheap.

Simone Page Jones with Medhanit, Beatrix Bae Bouwman, Claire Anne Taylor, Nicole Farrow, Ana Thema, Kat Daddi, Misty Del Ray, Pussay Poppins + Rosa Rita 

Take Me to the Dollyverse

Marvel at a DIY wonderland built by artist, sculptor and metal-crafter Aedan Howlett. Then watch punk bands destroy it.

Aedan Howlett

Alien, angel and witch back from Berlin to do your horoscopes and bathe in your blood. Benji is also a performance artist, fashion designer and caravan park manager from Seven Mile Beach. She knows the spells and she will cast them.


Benji Chandler

Renegade New York video art—David calls it ‘resemblagé’—from the underbelly of American pop culture. When not covering himself in goo, David gets papped with celebs as his alter ego Alex von Furstenburg: VIP party crasher and conceptual artwork.

David Henry Nobody Jr

Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill unleash heavy, rattling music that smashes colonialism and destroys white supremacy. Drums, guitar, sax and doom. Vital politics, great merch.

Divide and Dissolve

Curious movers, shakers and totem tennis troupers. Holly and Gabi use their bodies to interpret the quagmire of their shared subconscious while keeping balls in the air.

Holly Durant + Gabi Barton

An Afghan wedding singer / local party starter and his Casio keyboard. Khaled is there for you when the party takes off and defies you not to dance.

Khaled Zerro

Enter the warped brain of this Yogyakarta-based genius. Therein you’ll find video art wrought from post-internet creation myths and hyperreal, futuristic dreamworlds in which the artist communes with ghosts, mystics and cockroaches.


Natasha Tontey

A fierce dancer, choreographer and physical philosopher channels her feminist politics into a collaboration with a diverse group of dancers from Launceston.

PAEA LEACH AND THE DOLLYVERSE DANCERS

A super special performance from the only person to have performed at more Mofos than Brian Ritchie. Big beard. Big beats. Bleep bleep.

Robin Fox 

New wave hip-hopper making massive strides in the underground music scene. Born in Nigeria, raised in New Zealand, and here to deliver a unique combo of trap, house, club culture, and pop-inspired hooks with fresh cuts from her forthcoming, debut EP.

Sophiegrophy

Local brass heroes unite. It’ll be loud, it’ll be moving, it’ll subvert and celebrate our lady and saviour, Dolly Parton. Led by Stephen McEntee of Hobart’s Afro-beat / Indo-funk orchestra, Baba Bruja. 


Stephen McEntee with some Big-Ass Launceston Brass

To introduce the new Tasdance Ensemble to Launceston, dancers Kyall Shanks, Amber McCartney, Jenni Large, Gabe Comerford and Olivia McPherson will go head to head with synthesisers, hang off some fire escapes and infiltrate the party with a riot of movement.

Tasdance

‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Go all the way, from dusk until dawn, as we take our chameleon club on an all-night odyssey of love and forgiveness. We want you from beginning to end.  

Launceston Workers Club, All Goods Warehouse and other back alleys

Faux Mo

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

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

Princess Theatre, Brisbane Street

Amanda Palmer

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