Acclaimed artists created new works in Launceston’s laneways including Tatler Parade, Centreway Arcade, Dicky Whites Lane and Quadrant Mall.

Jasmine Crisp (She/Her) is a painter and muralist born and based in Adelaide, South Australia. Her detailed narrative-driven paintings can be found both in the gallery and in the open streets. Her practice features figures, spaces and belongings from her lived experience that are combined to create playful genre paintings of the imagined familiar. 
Her visual tales are crafted in reference to past traditions of portraiture, often directly adopting symbolism from notable paintings of history. Long established symbols are inserted into domestic, or nostalgic versions of the present to form fantasised landscapes of the human experience. 
Crisp completed a Bachelor Of Visuals Arts (Honours) at Adelaide Central School in 2017 and has since been granted artist in residence programs across Australia, Iceland, Finland and Mexico and exhibited works interstate and internationally, produced four solo exhibitions (SA, VIC) and multiple award winning paintings (CCH Art Prize, Kennedy Art Prize, Prospect Portrait Prize and more). 
Since initiating her public art practice in 2020, Crisp has produced large scale murals across the world, including notable works in France (Street Art Boulogne Sur Mur), Italy (Without Frontiers Lunetta), Vienna (Muralia), London (Blank Walls), Portsmouth UK (LOOKUP festival) and in Australia at the Darwin Street Art Festival, Wonderwalls Festival (Port Adelaide), Brisbane Street Art Festival, Wall to Wall (Tumby Bay), Banna Lane Festival (NSW), Frankston Street Art Festival and Geelong Street art Commission (VIC) amongst numerous other commissions nationwide. 
Artwork Title: 
‘Holding onto you is like the new past’ (working title)
Artist Statement:  
‘Holding onto you is like the new past’ is designed to function as a contemporary yet traditionally rooted artwork celebrating both the old and new characteristics of Launceston through a homely lens of recognition and regrowth. As a non-local who has fond memories of Launceston as a visitor, I have decided to capture Launceston through a series of ‘souvenir’ objects, primarily a woollen jumper that features an iconic view of the Cataract Gorge. The jumper a symbol of comfort, warmth and protection as something that can be worn, yet also acts as reference to a history of wool craft and creativity in Launceston. These symbols present a kind of ‘homely shrine’ that presents a desire to ‘hold onto’ or keep Launceston close to the heart, a place of past but also a place to return to. In this composition I have reimagined the long tradition of the ‘still life’ painting to feature some familiar and domestic objects (such as the jumper) but also more fantastical, curious or even ‘impossible’ elements (such as the perspective of the hand opening the door). Together these carefully selected elements inspire an open narrative of site-specific events, environs and personal discovery, that elude to an almost x-ray vision from the outside of the building into the warmth of it’s possible interior.

Jasmine Crisp

Mel McVee is a Perth born multi-disciplinary artist working primarily in the realms of community art, murals, sculpture and illustration. With a Fine Arts degree from Curtin University, her interest in street art emerged through and passion in community activation projects in her local area.   
Aesthetically her work deals with the idea of lines and connection. Her cartographic background of creating maps for the environmental industry, piqued her fascination in the way the world can be shaped in absolutes. She uses solid colours and shapes to creatively define an area, an idea or a relationship. Her work reflects the stylisation seen in linocut prints or stain glass windows, while the colour used invokes a sense of nostalgia and connection within the surrounding environment.  
Mel’s work is simultaneously whimsical and personal and reflects cultural, environmental and historic elements of the locations in which they are created – a celebration of what is locally beautiful and quintessentially Australian.   
<a href="https://www.melskiart.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.melskiart.com/ </a>
Artwork Title: 
Brushtail Possum in the Trees at Night
Artist Statement:  
This work captures a quiet, often unseen moment — a brushtail possum moving through the trees under the cover of darkness. While much of our world rests, a parallel landscape awakens. The night becomes a stage for subtle movement, soft light, and heightened awareness. 
The possum is both subject and symbol. Familiar yet elusive, it represents resilience and adaptability within our shared urban and bush environments. Its presence in the trees speaks to layered habitats — canopies above streets, hidden corridors between homes, and the delicate ecosystems that exist alongside human life.

Mel McVee

Aleks Crossan is an award-winning Swiss-American visual artist and performer based in Hobart, Tasmania. Her multidisciplinary practice spans painting, choreography, music, and performance, with a focus on contemporary abstract art that examines authenticity, decision-making, and intuition. Career highlights include a mentorship with MONA curator Trudi Brinckman through Contemporary Art Tasmania, solo exhibitions at Salamanca Arts Centre and Devonport Regional Gallery, and being commissioned as an artist for the Clarence Jazz Festival 2025. Aleks combines worldly creativity, contagious enthusiasm, and grounded authenticity in her work. 
Artist Statement: 
My work is driven by colour, joy, and emotional vitality. Through bold palettes and intuitive, childlike mark making, I aim to transform everyday spaces into places of warmth and imagination. This mural unfolds like a playful dreamscape; where organic forms and symbolic elements invite curiosity and movement. 
I believe public art has the power to shift atmosphere. By wrapping the building in vibrant yellows and greens, with simplified and abstracted playful objects, the work brightens the streetscape and gently disrupts the ordinary. 
My mural is an invitation to reconnect with playfulness; to pause, smile, and rediscover the inner child. My intention is to create a moment of uplift, reminding us that colour, wonder, and creativity belong in our shared spaces.

Aleks Crossan

O’Hern describes with a strange fondness those lost parts of suburbia where weeds choke unpopular infrastructure. Blackberries, hemlock, willows—those stranglers of drains, signposts and rubbish—poisonous and picturesque foxgloves, peering over smashed glass and cokes cans and stolen bikes. His monster drawings evolve the same way, exploding across the paper rhizomatically, as if roots direct routes in some kind of cell-splitting, replicating, cloning, swarming, breeding… 
…but O’Hern’s monsters are not monstrous. The monstrous, like the abject, includes in its own expression the desire by others to cast it out, to reject or to escape it. O’Hern’s monsters are not sinister, they’re comical: full of fractured smiles that are full of fractal tracks of sharp teeth; thousands of wall eyes, they look like they’re laughing. But they’re not quite hysterical either, the artist’s command of his medium is too convincing; there is no loss of control. 
Perhaps it is the artist’s work to tame the monstrous? Like the child in a Patrick White novel who both fears and reveres a cascading monstera deliciosa; his every humiliation is caught in the thousand eyes of his own delicious monster. 
This approach has seen his work appear in solo and group exhibitions in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart, and on the front of publications. He’s done residences in Hobart, Queenstown, Paris and Shan Xi.  And his works collected by major institutions including MONA &#8211; Museum of Old &amp; New Art, Artbank and Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery to name a few.

Tom O'Hern

George Kennedy is an emerging artist based in Hobart, Tasmania. His practice explores the fringe areas of the Tasmanian landscape, where the expansion of urbanisation encroaches on natural spaces. Kennedy is particularly drawn to the complexity of these boundaries, where the lines and forms of the manmade and organic converge. Through paint, Kennedy interprets these spaces using a combination of abstraction and figuration, responding to encounters between body and the material environment. His work employs rich colour, bold lines and dynamic compositions to represent the changing stability of these areas, visualising spaces that elude easy categorisation or representation. 
At the heart of Kennedy’s practice is an intuitive approach, developing a visual language that evokes a sense of transition, moments of clarity and structure, which shift into vigorous turbulence. Kennedy’s work highlights this alteration of the landscape, bringing awareness to the fragile balance between Tasmania’s natural assets and its urban inhabitants. 
George Kennedy studied Fine Arts at the University of Tasmania, recently holding a solo exhibition at the Devonport Regional Gallery. Kennedy won the Tasmanian Portrait Prize in 2019, as well as the national Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize in 2020. In 2021, he was a finalist in the Peebles Print Prize, Victoria, completing a Q Bank Gallery artist residency at Queenstown the same year. In 2023, Kennedy completed a two-month long artist residency on King Island. 
Artist Statement: 
The wall is an imagined Launceston sourced from life, prints, postcards, and photographs, across decades and centuries. Various angles and times of day have been collaged into an energetic depiction of the city, with the iconic rocks and water of the gorge overhead. The warm palette is bold and eye-catching, and can be seen and recognised from near and far.

George Kennedy

Jamin and Luke Emmerton&#8217;s mural will feature a chair made by Jimmy Possum  and two native animals, the Blue Tongue Lizard and the Pigmy Possum. Both of these creatures are shy and elusive as was Jimmy Possum, who to this day, is a mysterious character in Tasmanian mythology. Did he exist? Was he one person or many? Was he indigenous to Tasmania or a colonist? The ingenious design of the Jimmy Possum chairs have captured the attention of collectors and furniture enthusiasts, but little is known about the actual person or if they ever existed at all.
The scene is still; a still life, a tableau, a held moment.
Something moves in the background. Shadows, stripes… another elusive form.
Myth concealing myth, life concealing life.
How and where do we even begin to understand our place, our history, our truth, in this post-post world?

Jamin & Luke Emmerton

Claire Foxton is an Australian artist and designer based in Wollongong NSW. She is known for her large-scale murals found across Australia, New Zealand and the United States.  
Claire attained a Bachelor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong in 2009, majoring in Graphic Design &amp; Visual Arts. Alongside a successful career in graphic design, Claire painted her first mural in 2016, falling in love with the physicality and scale of mural painting. She has been invited to street art festivals and group shows globally and has worked for a broad range of clientele across Australia&#8217;s public and private sectors.  
At the forefront of all of Claire’s work is a deep understanding of colour, texture and form and a desire to leave intact the story of its process. Much of her work blurs the line between analogue and digital processes, often beginning in one place and ending in the other. 
With a distinctive mix of abstract and photorealistic techniques, Claire’s painted mural works explore a site-specific narrative often concerned with the connectedness of people and place. 
Claire also maintains a studio practice, working predominantly in acrylics, pencil and pastel. Her smaller works explore a more personal narrative, often within themes of matrescence, duality and identity.

Claire Foxton

Matt Adnate seeks to capture the essence of humanity in his artwork, using portraiture to convey the depth and beauty of their internal spirit. 
At the core of Adnate&#8217;s art is a profound belief in the transformative power of art to bring about positive social change. His murals often feature monumental portraits of Indigenous individuals shining a spotlight on their culture, heritage, and struggles. He aims to amplify their voices, drawing attention to the significance of land rights and cultural preservation. 
One of Adnate&#8217;s notable achievements is his 20-storey mural on a housing commission building in Melbourne. This mural serves as a striking portrayal of the diverse individuals and communities living in the housing estate, showcasing their stories and humanity. It has become a symbol of inclusivity and community empowerment, shedding light on those who are often overlooked and marginalized. 
Adnate&#8217;s talent and impact has been recognised in the music and art world. He won the Archibald Packing Room Prize in 2024 and an ARIA for Best Cover Art in 2022 for his work on Baker Boy&#8217;s album &#8220;Gela.&#8221; He has also been a finalist multiple times in prestigious art competitions such as the Doug Moran and the Archibald. 
In recognition of his artistic career, Adnate was selected to have an Art Series hotel dedicated to his work in Perth, Australia. “The Adnate” hotel features a massive 25-storey mural hand painted by Adnate, which has become a landmark in the city and a celebration of his art and its message. “The Adnate” hotel provides a unique space where art and hospitality intersect, offering guests an immersive experience of his concepts and paintings. 
Adnate&#8217;s art promotes social change through murals that advocate, raise awareness, and empower. His work resonates globally, earning him a prominent place in the art world and inspiring engagement with societal issues. 
Artist Statement: 
This mural brings together iconic Tasmanian wildlife and native flora to create a contemporary portrait of place. The Tasmanian tiger and Tasmanian devil sit within the composition as symbols of loss and survival, reflecting Tasmania’s fragile and powerful natural history. White blossoms of the Tasmanian Blue Gum emerge through expressive, layered brushstrokes, representing renewal and growth. Bold painterly marks cut across the surface, adding movement and energy, referencing the evolving urban landscape of Launceston. Together, these elements form a visual dialogue between past, present and future.

Matt Adnate

CREATURE CREATURE is an artist duo based in Melbourne, Australia, comprising Chanel Tang and Ambrose Rehorek. They have a collaborative art practice that spans across exhibiting art, murals, street art, design, and illustration. Their combined style is a convergence of Asian aesthetics and iconography with a Western perspective, resulting in works brimming with contrast and fluidity. 
The work embodies the concept of duality and the sum of a whole, emphasising messages of togetherness, states of balance, yin and yang. Through their partnership, they aim to preserve diversity and create expressions that are complex, layered, and interconnected, celebrating the beauty of unity 
Artwork Title:  
Bright Shadow
Artist Statement: 
Our design hopes to foster a deep appreciation for the natural wonders of  Launceston and Tasmania. It depicts the modern folklore and myth around the mysterious Thylacine/Tasmanian Tiger. Its legend and tale of extinction is warning to the threats on native species when the balance is not respected. The artwork also features the endangered Tasmanian Barn Owl and the Ptunarra Brown Butterfly who move side by side the Thylacine as a foreshadowing of beauty lost.

Creature Creature

Sam Dobransky is an abstract contemporary artist currently residing in nipaluna/Hobart, Tasmania. His practice includes painting, installation and large-scale mural work that explores the meditative relationship of repetition within the artistic process.

Sam Dobransky

Maggie May Jeffries is an emerging artist from lutruwita/Tasmania, based in nipaluna/Hobart. Inspired by a sense of childhood wonder, her botanical oil paintings explore the nature of remembering by layering plants, shadows and light. Central to her creative practice is a fascination with the detail found in our natural world. Maggie’s paintings are intended to become documentations of her experience, reminiscent of the ways she would explore as a child. Lately, this creative work has been questioning the ‘rewilding’ of her painting process, allowing compositions to evolve naturally through the collection of plants, interweaving sensory experience, and memory.
Alex Moss’s practice centres on transforming spaces, performances and static objects through projected light, sound design and interactive elements. Through his work and collaborations, he seeks to engage the senses, provoke curiosity and challenge perceptions and rigid notions of reality. Alex’s multidisciplinary skill set (audio, visual and interactive design) has allowed him to work in diverse contexts including; art installations, events, performance, production, content creation, and education.  
Artwork title: 
The Weather at Midnight  
Artist Statement:  
The Weather at Midnight is an ongoing collaborative project by Maggie Jeffries (Visual Artist) and Alex Moss (Mutli disciplinary digital artist) which combines botanical oil painting and projections/sound elements to create an interactive audio-visual installation. This collaboration is intended to explore expanded painting, and the intricacies of sensory experience. For the Launceston Street art festival, these artists will create a site responsive public artwork inside the John Hart Conservatory in Launceston City Park. Over the course of one week, the conservatory will transform into a residency space, open to the public to observe the development of a collaborative painting, with projections visible at night, painting open for observation during the day. This painting, projections and sound design will act as a document of our time spent inside the John Hart conservatory. The artists intend to blend Weather data, plant signals and images from the species growing around them at this site, to create an immersive installation, open during the Street Art Festival 27 March &#8211; 29 March 2026.

Maggie Jeffries & Alex Moss  

Katie Barron is a Canadian-born artist, now living and making work in lutruwita, Tasmania. Her practice explores cultural traditions and shared joy through the lens of food. Barron was selected for the 2023 RISE exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, celebrating ten of Tasmania’s most significant and collectable emerging artists. In 2023, Barron was awarded the Henry Jones Art Prize for painting and was selected as a finalist in numerous art prizes, including the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award 2024 and 2025, and the National Still Life Award in 2025. Katie’s practice explores cultural traditions and shared joy through the lens of food. Through humour, hunger, and a touch of comedy, her work invites exploration into the ordinary. The hyper-real paintings she produces are the result of processes involving photography, sculpture, and often a significant amount of calories consumed. 
Artist Statement: 
Tattoos can sometimes be serious or intimidating, but just as often, they are a fun and playful form of self-expression. I think if the City of Launceston could have tattoos, they would be silly symbols of our city&#8217;s love of food. Food and fun so often go hand-in-hand, and nowhere does food quite like Launnie. From vineyards to dairy farms, Tasmania is overflowing with delicious things. Even our history is delicious, with a Peters factory churning out icecreams for decades. Although it&#8217;s no longer here, it&#8217;s worth remembering.

Katie Barron

Launceston’s laneways came alive on Saturday 28 March for Thoroughfare, a full‑day celebration of street culture, creativity and connection. The city was filled with art, skateboarding, music and food, turning familiar streets into places to hang out, explore and discover something new.
With acclaimed artists creating large‑scale murals, a live music lineup, food and drink stalls, live skate demonstrations and more, there was something for everyone at Thoroughfare.
Produced by the City of Launceston, this free event celebrated the city’s evolving urban culture and the creative energy that thrives in its streets and laneways.

Theresa O’Connor 
Theresa O&#8217;Connor is a Performer and Puppeteer with a bachelor degree in Theatre and has also trained in physical theatre and puppetry across Australia and Europe.  Theresa has trained with Puppets in Prague, Sue Buckmaster, Duda Paiva, Bartlomiej Ostapczuk, Agnes Limbos, Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre and Clare Batholemew to name a few. 
Theresa has experience in both live performance and film &amp; television. Styles of performance range from drama, comedy, physical theatre, roving characters and puppetry. As a puppeteer, Theresa has performed in the national tour of Bluey&#8217;s Big Play and internationally with multiple Charlie and Lola productions. Her Film and TV credits include Spooky Files Season 2 and multiple TV commercials.  
Theresa O&#8217;Connor leads Puppet Making and Manipulation workshops for all ages.  
She is also a Puppetry Coach on theatre and television productions.
&nbsp;
Katie Hill 
Katie works as a venue, production, event, and stage manager, freelance technician, actor, puppeteer, stand-up comedian, and physical theatre performer. 
She graduated from UTAS with a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (Theatre) in 2005, then completed her Honours in Blacklight Puppetry, producing the experimental ultraviolet puppetry piece What’s under Adam?  
She has performed in One Day projects for Mudlark Theatre, Things I Know To Be True, The Season at Sarsaparilla and Noises Off for Three River Theatre, Improbable Fiction with the Launceston Players, the Launceston Musical Society’s production of Avenue Q, IO Performance’s Anatomy of a Suicide, Kill Climate Deniers and BLANK, and Happy Habits’ touring production of Stressica.

Puppet Making

Inspired by similar initiatives in Brisbane and London, Launceston&#8217;s Paste-Up Project is an opportunity for artists of any ability from around Australia and the world to ‘travel’ to Launceston, Tasmania through their artwork. The Paste-up Project is taking place for the first time as a part of City of Launceston&#8217;s street art event, Thoroughfare. 
Paste-up refers to paper-based visual artworks that are &#8216;pasted&#8217; to walls or surfaces using an adhesive. Paste-ups can be text based, simple or complex visuals that can be digital creations or created by hand. Typically, paste-ups are transient and may be covered up by a new artwork the next day. 
Paste-ups are a broadly accessible artform because it can be done on a variety of scales, by a person of any skill level. Launceston&#8217;s Paste-Up Project aims to build the reputation of paste-up as a celebrated medium. The paste-up process is a safe, ephemeral niche  
A collection of paste-ups will be applied to Launceston CBD walls at Thoroughfare on Saturday 28 March. Visitors and locals are invited to paste a piece themselves on the day. 
Project advisor
Maia is an urban designer, planner and Brisbane based artist. As a practicing urban planner/designer, Maia understands the complexity of urban systems which allows her to see the wide-reaching benefits of facilitating art in the public realm, particularly from a community perspective. Her passion and interest in these fields intersect through her investigation into the implementation of informal urban art in residual urban spaces.  
Maia’s professional and artistic endeavours are influenced by being neurodiverse, with this informing her enthusiasm for building community capacity and knowledge around public art, planning and urban design.  
Her studies include a Master of Science (Urbanism Studies) from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm and a Bachelor of Urban Development (Urban &amp; Regional Planning) from Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She currently works in Meanjin/Brisbane as an urban designer and planner.  
Initially completing a Bachelors thesis focussing on sanctioned and unsanctioned public art in Brisbane, while undertaking her Masters studies in Sweden she progressed this thinking further, undertaking primary and secondary research on informal public art in residual urban spaces in Stockholm. Maia sees that informal urban art offers an opportunity to strengthen place identity and for public expression. Maia’s area of study will explore opportunities to increase the level of participation in informal urban art in a way that benefits the community.

Paste-Up Project

Skate of Mind is a grassroots, national touring collective of skaters, musicians and artists working to foster positive action, creative expression and community connection for young people in regional and remote communities around Australia. 
Skate of Mind brings young people together by offering high-quality, youth-focused workshops and events, teaching desirable creative skills, building positive connections with peers, mentors and local community and facilitating a low risk entry point to connect with local support services. 
Our project offers early intervention, prevention, and diversionary programs that meet young people where they are, and caters workshop design to meet their needs and interests. Through mentoring with professional skateboarders, artists and musicians, young people learn valuable tools for self-expression and experience the physical and mental health benefits of non-competitive physical activity. Community events serve to showcase the creative content generated by young people in workshops and celebrate the positive contribution that young people make to community life. 
We are proud to bring this exciting project back to Launceston to run a series of community events across a multi-day tour. Culminating in a performance of SKATE &#8211; a live skateboarding show in development by BIG hART &#8211; exploring the artistry of skateboarding and the interplay between light, sound and movement. Performed by some of Australia’s best skateboarders on our iconic transportable half-pipe built in Tasmania, SKATE is a visual spectacle that showcases skateboarding in a way never seen before.

Skate of Mind

Bodies on Brick is a unique performance created for Thoroughfare: the City of Launceston’s inaugural street art festival. A site-specific, improvised and play based dance work in the heart of the CBD — led by young people reclaiming public space with safety, courage and belonging.
This is a roving performance that moves with the city, weaving through familiar streets and laneways, gently pied-pipering you to follow, the energy builds, a crescendo, before slowly dissolving back into brick and bitumen. We’re inviting you to look again at the places you think you know — to notice how bodies meet walls, how movement reshapes concrete, to interrogate how you engage with a place and to sit with the question: what are the memories and traces left behind when an ephemeral dance disappears?
This project was made possible by the Australian Government&#8217;s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia and was assisted through Arts Tasmania.
<a href="https://www.stompin.net">Stompin</a> is a vital force in Australian youth dance, leading the sector with its ambitious site-specific practice, innovative programs and empowering approach to the engagement and development of young dance artists. Stompin began in 1992 with the idea that when young people collaborate with professional artists they can create inspiring, bold and relevant new dance works and through that process, experience transformative personal and creative growth.

Two young people dancing in front of a fountain in a city square

Stompin

Flash Fiction is a pop-up temporary tattoo studio serving up smiles. All of the experience of a genuine tattoo shop with none of the needles. Stop by and pick out a design from the flash sheet to get your own real deal (temporary) tattoo. Celebrating the playful side of self-expression and tattoo culture.
Flash Fiction is a pop-up temporary tattoo studio serving up smiles. All of the experience of a genuine tattoo shop with none of the needles. Stop by and pick out a design from the flash sheet to get your own real deal (temporary) tattoo. Celebrating the playful side of self-expression and tattoo culture.

Flash Fiction

The main stage on St John Street hosted a full afternoon and evening of live music, featuring:

Sumner are trailblazing a new sound from lutruwita / Tasmania, captivating both national and international audiences with their genre-defying, emotionally resonant electronic music. The alternative electronic duo, comprised of Chloe Wilson and Jack McLaine, have amassed over 10 million streams and built a reputation for their strikingly dynamic records and high-energy live shows.
Fusing intricate left-field production with sincere, raw songwriting, Sumner bring a unique live-instrumentation background to the electronic space &#8211; shaped by Chloe’s foundation as a drummer and Jack’s multi-instrumental production approach. Rooted in the Tasmanian landscape, their music is both sonically bold and deeply personal, reflecting the isolation, beauty, and intensity of their surroundings.
Their breakout single Stranded, co-written and produced by PNAU, became one of triple j’s most-played tracks in 2021. Since then, the duo have continued their ascent with major festival appearances at Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Party in The Paddock, Panama, and more, alongside supports for artists including Empire of the Sun, The Wombats, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, DMA’S, San Cisco, Boo Seeka and Holy Holy.

SUMNER

Queenie’s 2024 debut album New Moult is a melting pot of immersive soundscapes, raw emotion, and powerhouse vocals—an unflinching statement of arrival from one of Australia’s most exciting new voices. Released via Cheersquad Records &amp; Tapes the album debuted at #19 on the ARIA Charts and #3 on the AIR Charts, earning national radio rotation including Double J. 
Blending vulnerability with voltage, Queenie’s songs cut deep—led by “Not Divine”, which was shortlisted for APRA’s 2025 Song of the Year and cemented her reputation as a fearless, genre-blurring songwriter. Nominated for Breakthrough Artist and Album of the Year at the 2025 AIR Awards, she’s already being recognised as a major force in Australian music. 
On stage, Queenie is magnetic. Whether performing solo or backed by a band of Naarm/Melbourne’s finest, her shows shimmer with raw energy, theatrical flair, and a voice that can shift from delicate to explosive in an instant. Following a sold-out album launch at Northcote Social Club, she’s become a festival favourite with appearances at Beyond the Valley, Queenscliff Music Festival, PANAMA, Blues on Broadbeach, and more. 
With New Moult, Queenie hasn’t just announced herself—she’s kicked the door in.  
“Queenie’s Saturday performance felt like a star-making moment—equal parts theatre, thunder and attitude.” Rolling Stone (Blues on Broadbeach 2025).

QUEENIE

Tasmanian artist Grace Chia blends her poetry roots with impactful hip-hop and soulful RnB, addressing political and social issues often overlooked in mainstream media.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Through her performances, she amplifies marginalised voices with punchy bars and raw emotion. Expect deep-thought lyricism, soulful melodies and raw performances with her heart worn proudly on her sleeve. Grace is a regular at Hobart’s hip-hop events and performs nationally, including PITP, MONA FOMA, DARK MOFO and The Festival of Voices and Pangea Festival (MLB). She’s supported acts like Drapht, Downsyde, Allday, Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, Grouch in Dub, The Dub Princess and K+Lab. Grace performed her first international show in New Zealand for Twisted Frequency’s New Years Eve festival 2024/25 and for their official after party supporting Deca (US) and Sunz (NZ).<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}"> 
Last year, Grace was selected for the Nick Balcombe foundation’s “Live Your Dream Grant” and was shortlisted in AU$’s Best Emerging Artists. In 2023 she released her debut album, ‘Marsapollo”, won the Young Achiever’s People’s Choice Award, earned a National Live Music Awards nomination for Best Live Act, and was selected in The Push’s 25 under 25 ‘Best Emerging Artists’.<span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}">

GRACE CHIA

エミエミ (emi emi) is the experimental J-pop project from 25-year-old Emi Doi. Born and raised in lutruwita to her Launcestonian mum and Japanese dad, エミエミ combines Emi&#8217;s existing indie-music flavour with uptempo Japanese-pop, drawing on inspiration from the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, CHAI, Kyary Pyamu Pyamu and AAAMYYY. 楽しんでください (≧▽≦)  <span class="EOP SCXW164077048 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:279}">

EMI EMI

&#8216;Captain O’Brien’s Craic is a high‑energy 7‑piece Celtic punk band blending Irish traditional melodies with big choruses, driving rhythms, and a singalong spirit. Built for festivals, dance floors, and beer gardens, the show leans hard into the Irish/Aussie session feel, but with the volume and attitude of a modern rock band’

Captain O’Brien’s Craic

The Bad Dad Orchestra is an Australia powerhouse band hailing from Launceston, lutruwita//Tasmania.
Formed in 2015, the nine-piece band is known for their unique high-energy rock-and-soul live performances, with big grooves, snappy horn lines and catchy vocals from front-man Jimi Steele&#8230; the classic sounds of Australian pubrock with a unique brand of soul.
Since establishing, The Bad Dad Orchestra have gratefully featured on return festival billing across mainland Australia. 2025 saw the band&#8217;s first international five-show tour of Japan.
Critical review of the band&#8217;s 2024 studio album:
“Makin&#8217; Me Wild cements The Bad Dad Orchestra’s reputation as one of the best bands in Australia. This album is brilliant, but something tells me these guys take the energy up a notch when they’re in front of a crowd. Find out for yourself when Bad Dad Orchestra visits your hometown on their album launch tour.”
— Lauren Katulka, Sound of Oz
Make way for The Bad Dad Orchestra!

THE BAD DAD ORCHESTRA

Luneward is an emerging band from Launceston, bringing together a blend of atmospheric indie, melodic rock, and thoughtful songwriting shaped by the creative pulse of lutruwita/Tasmania’s music scene. Driven by expressive vocals, textured guitars and an instinct for dynamic live performance, Luneward’s sound moves between intimate moments and expansive, energetic arrangements.
The group has been steadily building a following through live performances across Northern Tasmania, appearing at community events, festivals and local stages that champion original music. Their songs draw on themes of reflection, place and connection, delivered with a raw sincerity that resonates with audiences.
Luneward bring a warm, engaging stage presence that captures the spirit of Tasmania’s independent music community while carving out a sound that is distinctly their own.

LUNEWARD

Music took centre stage on St John Street, where the main stage hosted a full afternoon and evening of live performances with a mix of genres and sounds to keep the street buzzing from day into night.
Skate culture is also a key part of the program, with skate demos and a half-pipe inviting participation and showcasing local talent.

Time	Artist/Event	Location
11:30-17:30	Puppet Making Workshops	Brisbane Street Mall
11:30-18:30	Flash Fiction - Temporary Tattoos	Centre Way
11:30-18:30	Paste-Up Workshops	Centre Way
11:30-16:00	Skate Workshops	Half Pipe
12:00-12:15	Event Opening	Main Stage
12:15-12:30	Welcome to Country	Main Stage
12:30-13:10	Luneward	Main Stage
13:10-13:40	Georgette Wilks	The Mall Stage
13:10-13:40	Bodies on Brick by Stompin	Quadrant Mall
13:10-13:40	Kate Rigby	Avenue Stage
13:50-14:40	The Bad Dad Orchestra	Main Stage
14:45-15:15	Kate Rigby	The Mall Stage
14:45-15:15	Alex Cunningham	Avenue Stage
15:20-16:00	Captain O’Brien’s Craic	Main Stage
16:00-16:30	Spike Mason	The Mall Stage
16:00-16:30	Bodies on Brick by Stompin	Quadrant Mall
16:00-16:30	Oscar O'Shea	Avenue Stage
16:30-17:30	Queenie	Main Stage
17:30-18:00	Bodies on Brick by Stompin	Quadrant Mall
17:35-17:55	Skate demo	Half Pipe
18:00-18:40	Emi Emi	Main Stage
18:40-19:00	Puppet Parade	Brisbane Street Mall
19:00-19:40	Grace Chia	Main Stage
19:45-20:05	Skate demo	Half Pipe
20:10-21:00	Sumner	Main Stage

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