Festival of Voices to echo across Tasmania

The 2015 Festival of Voices will echo across more of our island this year as the 11th annual event expands.

The Festival of Voices gives Tasmania a much needed voice during the traditionally quieter winter months and this year’s program will again offer so much to local, national and international travellers.

It’s fantastic that this year the festival will be hitting high notes in Launceston for the first time, presenting international artists and workshops in partnership with the City of Launceston.

This adds to the success of the festival’s East Coast unplugged strategy that debuted last year and will continue this year, enticing more visitors to our regional areas.

Over the past decade the Festival of Voices has drawn national and international visitors to events and to take part in its choirs program.

More than 1,300 singers took part in the choir program in 2014, with almost 800 people participating in their programs. About six per cent were international visitors, from Shanghai and New Zealand, and 45 per cent were from other Australian states.

This is great for our tourism and hospitality industry, with all inbound participants staying a minimum of five nights, and international participants staying for the entire length of the festival.

Events like the Festival of Voices give many a reason to come to our state, and will go a long way to helping us reach our target of attracting 1.5 million visitors to our state each year by 2020.

The Liberal Government is proud to support the Festival of Voices, providing $350,000 a year over three years.

This year’s Festival of Voices will run from July 3 to 12.
Will Hodgman, Premier Minister for Tourism, Hospitality and Events