Australian electronic favourites The Avalanches are the first act confirmed to play Perth Festival 2027, set to close out next year’s event at East Perth Power Station.
The group will perform on Sunday, February 28th, showcasing their album, No Bad Memories (due out October 16th), alongside highlights from across their career.
The appearance is among the first events revealed for Perth Festival’s 2027 program, alongside the Australian premiere of theatrical production ROHTKO and a new staging of visual opera Operation.
The Avalanches – Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasi and Andy Szekeres – will return to Perth Festival more than 25 years after the release of their landmark debut album, Since I Left You.
Their new record, No Bad Memories, explores the relationship between nostalgia, advertising and technology, drawing inspiration from commercial jingles, start-up sounds and audio logos. Its collaborators include Jamie xx, Haley Joel Osment, Mike Patton, Suzanne Ciani and many more.
The Perth Festival announcement follows the release of new single “Far Away”, featuring British rapper and producer John Glacier and Tunisian producer Khadija Al Hanafi.
“And at the heart of it all, a reminder that East Perth Power Station is back, our iconic riverside home for summer with The Avalanches dropping into our lineup,” Perth Festival Artistic Director Anna Reece said. “I’m delighted to reveal our opening hand a little early. Clear your diaries. We’re not planning a quiet summer.”
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Perth Festival will open with ROHTKO, which runs at His Majesty’s Theatre from February 5th-13th. Directed by Poland’s Łukasz Twarkowski, the production is inspired by a real-life art forgery scandal involving a painting purportedly by Mark Rothko that sold for $8.3 million before later being exposed as a fake.
The festival will also present Operation at His Majesty’s Theatre from February 25th-27th. Created by Denmark’s Hotel Pro Forma, it reimagines the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice through opera, light, architecture and visual illusion.
“I’m incredibly proud that two of Europe’s great artistic visionaries will bookend this Festival,” Reece said. “We open with Łukasz Twarkowski’s ROHTKO, contemporary theatre at its most ambitious, cinematic and audacious, and close with Hotel Pro Forma’s Operation, a work of sublime visual and musical beauty, brought back to life in celebration of Kirsten Dehlholm’s remarkable legacy.
“Together they represent two very different but equally thrilling possibilities for what live performance can be.”
Previously announced for East Perth Power Station are Northern Irish singer-songwriter Foy Vance and Australian indie folk outfit The Paper Kites, who will perform together on Sunday, February 7th.
Tickets for ROHTKO, Operation and The Avalanches go on sale to Perth Festival Club members from 12pm today, with the general sale beginning at 12pm on Friday, September 11th. All times are AWST. See here for details.
The full Perth Festival 2027 program will be revealed on Thursday, October 29th.
For complete festival and ticket information, see here.
