Media release – The Unconformity 2025, 22 August 2025
THE UNCONFORMITY UNVEILS BOLD FESTIVAL PROGRAM
16-19 OCTOBER 2025 – QUEENSTOWN, LUTRUWITA/TASMANIA
An Arts Experience Like No Other: 60 Events, 121 Artists and Creatives, World Premiere of 18 New Commissions Across Four Days – Music Headlined by Iconic Australian Rock Band Spiderbait.
Western Lutruwita/Tasmania, Australia: One of Australia’s most distinctive and daring cultural festivals, The Unconformity returns to the rugged west coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania from 16–19 October 2025, unveiling a bold new program of place-responsive contemporary art events, live music and transformative communal experiences. A mix of local and statewide artists play the festival’s free live music stage, headlined by iconic Australian rock band Spiderbait and art rock supergroup Bleak Squad, performing in Queenstown for the first time.
The 2025 program features 60 events – including the world premiere of 18 new commissions – offering large-scale installations, performances, music, dance, ceremony and critical conversations. It showcases 121 artists from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific alongside West Coast and Palawa creatives.
With over 80% of the program free and a No Barriers: Pay It Forward ticketing initiative, The Unconformity 2025 reinforces its commitment to cultural accessibility, inclusion and community generosity.
From semaphore signals at dawn and artworks etched in Queenstown’s famous acidic orange river to rogue late-night sonic experiments with headliner cameos, and a fierce football match played on gravel, The Unconformity is a festival that defies definition. One deeply rooted in the west coast – shaped by place, people and an uncompromising creative spirit.
Festival-goers can experience this year’s works across 46 venues throughout Queenstown, from local shopfronts and a historic Art Deco theatre to artists’ homes and studios and the west coast’s remarkable wilderness. Crib Road returns as the festival’s beating heart – a vibrant outdoor precinct with food and drink, free live music and community gatherings along Queenstown’s main street.
This year’s thematic invitation to ‘respawn’ captures a spirit of renewal, resistance, and cyclical return. “To respawn reflects the energy of regeneration we feel so strongly here – whether in the land, in culture, or in ourselves,” said Loren Kronemyer, Artistic Director, The Unconformity.
“We may be a festival at the end of the world, but we’re always asking: what will be born the day after? How can we nourish this ground and nurture the green shoots that grow towards the light? The 2025 program is our collective response to those questions, offering up new work that is entirely inspired by this singular context. Every artwork is offered with the intention of honouring what is remarkable about the west coast.”
CEO Louisa Gordon welcomes visitors to explore the festival’s 2025 program that marks 15 years of site-responsive creativity and regenerative cultural development for the organisation.
“Festivals like The Unconformity create powerful shared moments in time – connecting artists, audiences and communities in place,” said Gordon, CEO.
“We’re proud to build on the legacy of this extraordinary organisation while opening new pathways for cultural dialogue and creative risk-taking in this ancient and resilient landscape.”
Tasmanian Minister for Tourism, Hospitality and Events Jane Howlett said The Unconformity celebrates the west coast’s uniqueness, its landscape, extraordinary stories, the people and their heritage.
“Congratulations to The Unconformity CEO Louisa Gordon and Artistic Director Loren Kronemyer, who, through this festival program, are demonstrating how place-based cultural leadership can foster local pride, national engagement and international exchange. The Unconformity continues to honour the spirit of the west coast and is a drawcard for local visitors and tourists alike.”
Over the past fifteen years, Chairperson Rick Snell has seen The Unconformity evolve from a grassroots community group to an arts organisation forging new cultural frontiers on the wild and mountainous western edge of Lutruwita/Tasmania, with the biennial multi-arts festival as its signature event.
“Every festival is a convergence of ideas, passion, art, emotion and hope. In this iteration, we build on the past, dream of bold futures and defy the limitations of isolation, terrain and the elements.
For four days, we invite audiences to embrace everything that shapes The Unconformity – and let our unconformities inspire yours,” said Snell.
VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
Throughout the festival, The Unconformity presents participatory and place-responsive artworks that honour memory, identity, and the transformative power of community.
In Fell, performance artist Luke George enters a state of suspended motion with a log equal to his body weight, evoking the reciprocal relationships between people and forests.
Bridget Baskerville’s kinetic sculpture Overflow sees copper plates etched by the acidic flow of the Queen River, marking time, memory and environmental change.
Jessee Lee Johns invites audiences to enter the Commonwealth of New Bayswater—a fictional micro-nation with its own economy, where creative collaboration and civic participation meet.
Jeweller Emma Bugg invites young people to contribute charms to Elemental Memories, a monumental, ever-growing necklace that will spill into the street, weaving together community stories as a continuation of a multi-year project.
In Rise Up When She Calls, Uncle Jimmy Everett Puralia Meenamatta, Ruth Langford and the Lutruwita Art Orchestra lead a powerful ceremony for Country performed in and for the landscape.
Jewelled Nights reimagines Tasmania’s first major feature film 100 years on—honouring female icons Marie Bjelke-Petersen and Louise Lovely through participatory performance, archival fragments and physical culture classes.
Mature Artists Dance Experience (MADE) perform Weaving Vibrant, a moving exploration of women as storytellers and weavers, flowing daily along Orr Street.
In What Water Could Remember, Indonesian artist Arif Furqan links Queenstown with Waduk Gajah Mungkur through stories of damming, displacement and resilience—told through archival film, fabric projections and local voices.
Malaysian artist Tony Yap performs Panjat Hujan (“Climbing the Rain”), a transcultural ritual drawing on Bugis shamanistic traditions and contemporary dance to explore resilience, spirit and survival.
Aboriginal artists Theresa Sainty and Zoe Rimmer invite the public to contribute to Kani mina milaythina-nanya?—a collaborative basket and cultural exchange that begins by asking: where are you from?
FESTIVAL FAVOURITES RETURN
Festival-goers are invited to welcome the first light of the festival with the dawn hike Unrise, in which artists Theresa Sainty and A Published Event join forces to share Semaphore Score as an opening call to Country in palawa kani. This coded statement will be relayed across Mount Owen and Queenstown via signalers waving botanical-dyed flags.
Encounter over 60 west coast artists along The Unconformity Art Trail where works range from prize-winning paintings, Huon Pine wares, photography and ceramics to sculptures wrought from recycled local copper. Having grown since 2016, this cornerstone event continues to surprise visitors with works exhibited – and many for sale – in businesses, shopfronts and public spaces as well as unexpected and secret spaces within Queenstown.
Moonland is the festival’s hub for talks, readings, workshops and reflection, offering a space to share stories of place and a daytime reading room for discovery and rest. As a guest speaker, Uncle Jimmy Everett Puralia Meenamatta will share unique perspectives on art, regeneration and nurturing the future.
The festival’s grand finale is The Unconformity Cup: a uniquely Queenstown sporting event that pits artists and athletes against the elements in a gladiatorial all-gender football match played on Queenstown’s unforgiving gravel oval. Think ‘grassroots footy without the grass’, where The West has a score to settle with The Rest to bring the cup back home.
FREE LIVE MUSIC ON CRIB ROAD
Discover artists originating from the west coast alongside emerging talents stamping their authority on the national and international music scene in a music program that transforms Queenstown’s main street into a vibrant sonic landscape.
Australian rock legends Spiderbait headline Saturday night with their first-ever performance in Queenstown. Friday night sees newly-formed art-rock supergroup Bleak Squad – a powerhouse collaboration between Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Turner (Dirty Three), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) – play an exclusive Tasmanian show on their debut national tour. Nicholas Allbrook (Pond, Tame Impala, Allbrook/Avery) also brings his genre-blurring psych-synth sound and dynamic stage presence to Queenstown on Friday night.
Thursday 16 October
The festival opens with a powerful lineup of Tasmanian artists whose work speaks to place, identity and genre-defiance:
Denni – an emerging Palawa rapper and songwriter whose fierce lyrics and dynamic energy are rooted in cultural pride and personal storytelling.
EWAH – critically acclaimed post-punk artist and alumni of The Unconformity Artist in Residence program, known for brooding vocals, atmospheric synths and cinematic intensity.
Lutruwita Art Orchestra – an ensemble of 14 classically trained musicians, performing contemporary compositions responding to the west coast’s unique soundscapes and histories.
Dewayne Everettsmith – renowned vocalist blending soulful singing with deep cultural roots; his voice featured in Tourism Australia’s global campaign.
Empire Karaoke – festival-goers are invited to grab the mic and round out opening night with an unmissable sing-along at the iconic Empire Hotel.
Friday 17 October
The tempo lifts with an exhilarating and eclectic night of indie, punk, experimental and soul:
Bleak Squad – noir-meets-grunge as this art-rock four piece deliver new music from their debut album Strange Love.
Nicholas Allbrook – psychedelic rock star and frontman of Pond, known for explosive live sets and wild sonic exploration.
Queenie – a rising pop artist originally from Launceston and now based in Naarm/Melbourne, Queenie’s sound is bold, bright and unafraid.
Warren Mason – Blues musician with deep roots in Country and soul, celebrating Indigenous storytelling through sound.
Eli Strutt – with a rugged sound that matches the west coast mountain ranges, Eli takes inspiration from the environment and blends it with a unique blues sound.
Davey Ray Moor featuring Edwina Blush – atmospheric storytelling from a new wave legend meets sultry jazz-inflected vocals in this hypnotic collaboration, drawing on Davey Ray Moor’s collaborations with The Church and CousteauX.
We Lick Windows – a family of folk musicians sing blood harmony covers laced with lived experience and memories of Queenstown.
Grooved Erratic, the festival’s official after-party, takes over Queenstown’s Paragon Theatre on Friday and Saturday nights with a high-energy dance floor and surprise appearances from local and headline acts.
Saturday 18 October
Saturday night is a celebration of raw energy, storytelling and musical catharsis with a genre-spanning lineup of heavyweights:
Spiderbait – Aussie alt-rock royalty with decades of festival-dominating anthems and explosive live shows.
Peter Bibby – gritty, poetic, and hilariously unfiltered – a cult figure in the Australian songwriting scene.
Iris and The 99 Bends – Powerful vocals and sledge-rock song-writing, this local legend returns to her home town in full feminine force.
Bumpy – Noongar soul artist with velvet vocals, raw emotion and undeniable stage presence.
Chasing Ghosts – Punk-driven anthems with heart, history and blistering vocals from frontman Jimmy Kyle.
Emlyn Johnson – punchy singer-songwriter dispatching fresh and noisy experiments filled with deep Tassie lore.
Hannah Foley – Introspective folk auteur with an inventive approach to instrumentation and disarming authenticity.
The ‘straight and crooked voices’ of Queenie Quoir return with crowd-pleasers and improvisations across all four days of the festival.
Saturday night festivities continue into the wee hours with Grooved Erratic at Queenstown’s Paragon Theatre – where the late night speak-easy is punctuated with all star cameos.
Sunday 19 October
After The Unconformity Cup has been decided on Queenstown’s gravel oval, slake that thirst and settle in for a Sunday session featuring a fresh local lineup.
Full Program and Tickets: 2025.
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