Junction Arts Festival has dropped its full 2026 program, promising to turn Launceston into a playground of bold and unexpected art across four days in September.
The festival, now in its 16th year, will run from September 17 to 20 and transform the city’s churches, laneways and public spaces into performance venues.
Among the highlights, The Baptist church will be converted into a nightclub and cabaret venue, complete with strobe-lit stained glass and a dancefloor where the pews once sat.
Around the corner, Smiths Lane will host the Blind Pig Stables, a late-night lounge offering intimate performances in low light.
Executive producer Frith Mabin said the festival had earned its place on the state’s cultural calendar.
“Junction has become one of the most-loved weekends on Tasmania’s cultural calendar because it gives people a completely different way to experience their own city,” she said.
“This year’s program is our boldest yet, equal parts joyful, strange and unmissable.”
Chairperson Rebecca Birrell said the program offered a wide range of ways to welcome the new season.
“Our 16th festival will transform Launceston with multi-arts experiences,” she said.
“All will come to light in four exceptional days in Spring.”
Prince’s Square will serve as the festival hub, featuring live music from acts including Horns of Leroy ft thndo, Vasco Era and local artists The Spooky Eyes and Bully Hay.
Tasdance and Stompin will present COIL, a mass-participation dance work featuring 10 professional dancers, 60 local dance lovers and hundreds of slinkies.
At the Majestic Theatre, James Patrick Reed will perform Jack Hibberd’s A Stretch of the Imagination.
Food and performance collide at Making, a moving feast at Design Tasmania drawing on Launceston’s UNESCO City of Gastronomy status.
Families can look forward to the Wonderground kids’ zone, the Great Junction Dog Show and Pen Licence, a handwriting test run entirely by children.
Other standouts include Emily Sanzaro’s 7.5-hour Mixtape Marathon and the Secret Life of Eels, which traces the migration of Tasmania’s short-finned eel using the world’s first eel-skin instruments.
The full program is available at junctionartsfestival.com.au.
Tickets go on sale at 9am today.
