Australia’s premiere celebration of the voice is set to roar into life in Tasmania, with a range of events across genres including choral, contemporary and cabaret. More than just a series of concerts, the festival is also an educational and participatory opportunity, welcoming all who wish to sing and spend time together. The Festival of Voices Workshop Choir and Hobart Chamber Orchestra will join forces for Handel’s four Coronation Anthems, conducted by Graham Abbott – and who doesn’t love Zadok the Priest? Johannes Fritzsch and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will perform Gordon Hamilton’s Mozart Requiem Recomposed, while The Australian Voices will present a concert of works from the Australian choral canon including Nigel Butterley’s Exultate Domino, Sarah Hopkins’ Past Life Melodies and William Barton’s Kalkadunga Yurdu. Lior, Monica Trapaga and Marcia Hines will all take to the stage, while anyone and everyone who loves musical theatre is invited to participate in Singalong Musicals, with dressing up encouraged.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Experience the stirring power of women’s voices as they sing in harmony, honouring the spirits of those who were transported to the colonial Female Factory at Cascades, South Hobart. Now a World Heritage-listed site, over 7,000 female convicts spent time, and over 2,000 babies were born within the walls. 

Songs of love, loss, hope and freedom will take you on a visceral journey through history alongside the women who are creating the stories of today. 

Cascades Female Factory tells the story of the dispossession, mistreatment and forced migration of convict women and girls, and their contribution to colonisation throughout the history of colonial Australia to the present day. The Historic Site aims to foster a greater understanding and appreciation for the largely untold story of female convicts sent to Australia. It is the most significant site associated with female convicts in the country.

The site also contains the original grave of  Trukanini, a Nununi woman from lunawuni whose remains were tragically dug up by the Royal Society two years after her original burial at Cascades Female Factory in 1876. After resilient campaigning from the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, one hundred years after her death, Trukanini was finally set free and her ashes were scattered in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, near her homeland.

Today, the location of her original grave is represented by the planting of a stringy bark tree and, when fully grown, will be transported back to her home on Bruny Island.

We invite muka nawnta, Stowaway Lass, Nourish Womens Choir and Hobart Harmony to share their stories through song. We encourage you to dress warmly for this performance and take the time to absorb the history and stories of this World Heritage-listed location. Fire pots will be lit and limited seating will be available. You are welcome to bring a camping chair.