New Acts Added To Mona Foma 2023 Line-up

Bikini Kill, Peaches, Angel Olsen, Perturbator, The Chills and Kae Tempest are the latest additions to the 2023 Mona Foma line-up, alongside early announcements of Pavement and Bon Iver. 

From 17 to 19 February, Perturbator, Kae Tempest, and The Chills will take centre stage for the Old Tafe Sessions at Mona Foma's new festival hub in Launceston. Meanwhile, from 24 to 26 February, Bikini Kill, Angel Olsen, and Peaches join Pavement on the line-up for the Mona sessions in nipaluna / Hobart. Full line-ups for both venues have yet to be announced. 

The Chills, one of New Zealand's most enduring exports, lead The Old Tafe Sessions' opening night on Friday, 17 February. The band was founded in Dunedin in 1980 by the group's sole constant member, guitarist and singer/songwriter, Martin Phillipps, and currently thrives with the members James Dickson (bass guitar), Erica Stitchbury (violin), Oli Wilson (keyboards), and Todd Knudsen (drums). 

British writer and musician Kae Tempest stunned Mona Foma audiences in 2016 with their riveting performance and will surely do it again on Saturday, 18 February. Their blend of hip-hop and emotional storytelling has seen them become a twice-nominated Mercury Prize artist; Tempest will perform tracks from their latest album, The Line Is A Curve.

Closing the Old Tafe Sessions on Sunday, 19 February, is the Paris-based artist, Perturbator. James "Perturbator" Kent will showcase his latest album, Lustful Sacraments, and its seamless combination of post-punk and synth-wave. 

On Saturday, 25 February, Pavement - one of the most respected bands from the American underground alternative scene - headline the Mona sessions following a set from Angel Olsen, performing songs from her latest album, Big Time. Before them, though, is Peaches on Friday, 24 February, with her incendiary electropop and promises to "fuck the pain away." 

Bikini Kill will bring "girls to the front" on Sunday, 26 February, with their incredible feminist punk anthems - it will also be their first Australian show in 25 years. The reformed group of Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, and Tobi Vail are credited with instigating the Riot Grrrl movement via their political lyrics, zines and confrontational live shows.

Brian Ritchie, the Artistic Director of Mona Foma, said: "Mona Foma's Covid policy was innovative programming with Tasmanian and a handful of so-called Mainland performers for the past few years. Ready or not, here we come. We are effusively launching back into international artists big-time in 2023. 

The intellectual, spiritual and partying life of Tasmania cannot help but be enriched by such a diverse range of artists as renaissance person Kae Tempest, provocateur Peaches and her raunchy mob, storyteller Angel Olsen, pioneers and forerunners Bikini Kill, venerable Antipodean philosophers, The Chills and the enveloping miasma of Perturbator. This is in addition to the already announced Bon Iver and Pavement, plus a whole lot more to come. Stay tuned."

Tickets and information are here.