Spring has well and truly sprung. And Launceston is marking the occasion by turning the entire city into a stage. Junction Arts Festival returns from 17–20 September 2026, transforming unexpected corners of the city into performance spaces, galleries, and dinner tables for four days straight.
Every September, Junction lands right on the equinox and takes over a normal Tasmanian city (that would be Launnie) – repurposing heritage buildings as venues, turning backyards into concert halls, and curating dinners like gallery installations. This year marks the festival’s 16th edition, running 17–20 September.
Heritage Buildings, Reimagined
One of the boldest transformations on the program is The Baptist, a heritage building reworked into an atmospheric late-night performance and cabaret space – stained glass lit in shifting colour, pews cleared to make room for the crowd. It’s the kind of architectural repurposing that makes you look at a familiar building differently.
A few minutes away, Smiths Lane hosts the Blind Pig Stables – a quieter, more intimate counterpoint, with low light and performance just a few feet from your face. If The Baptist is where the energy peaks, this is where you go to unwind into it.
Junction HQ at Prince’s Square
For four days, Prince’s Square becomes the Festival Hub – food vans, bars, fire pits, and a packed music lineup including Horns of Leroy ft thndo and acclaimed rock-blues trio Vasco Era, alongside homegrown acts like The Spooky Eyes and Bully Hay. It’s the kind of lineup that rewards wandering in and staying longer than planned.
If you’re after something stranger, keep an eye out for COIL – a mass-participation dance work from Tasdance and Stompin involving 10 professional dancers, 60 local dance enthusiasts, and hundreds of slinkies, building toward a moment where the audience gets pulled in too.
Food, Curated Like Art (Because It Is)
The food side leans hard into Launceston’s UNESCO City of Gastronomy status, with Making delivering a moving feast at Design Tasmania, curated by Live Art Curator Emma Porteus alongside Hubert & Dan’s Danielle Lefrancois. Expect food and performance to blur into each other rather than sit politely side by side.
Kids Get a Giant Playground Too
Families aren’t an afterthought here. Wonderground brings a dedicated kids’ zone to the Festival Hub, the Great Junction Dog Show is exactly the wholesome chaos it sounds like, and Pen Licence – a handwriting test administered entirely by kids – might be the most delightfully petty concept on the whole program.
For the Completionists
A few more things worth clearing your calendar for: screen and stage veteran James Patrick Reed takes on Jack Hibberd’s A Stretch of the Imagination at the Majestic Theatre – a play The Age once called one of the most beautiful Australian plays ever written. Emily Sanzaro is attempting a 7.5-hour Mixtape Marathon travelling backwards through four decades of music (bring snacks, or at least a chair). Backyard Bands drops 8-piece funk outfit Funktional into a hidden East Launceston backyard. And Secret Life of Eels traces the migration of Tasmania’s short-finned eel using instruments made from eel skin – either the strangest or most poetic sentence in this entire festival program.
The Details
When: 17–20 September 2026
Where: Across Launceston – Prince’s Square (Festival Hub), The Baptist, Smiths Lane, Design Tasmania, the Majestic Theatre and various pop-up spots around the city
Program & tickets: www.junctionartsfestival.com.au
