Perth Festival Announces 2015 Music Lineup

The Perth Festival has announced a diverse range of guests to headline musical performances at the 63^rd instalment of the 24-day art festival.

Irish folk artist Sinead O’Connor and Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright lead the international lineup announcement and will be joined by electronic pop three-piece London Grammar, Texan indie rock outfit Spoon, and downtempo Melbourne producer Chet Faker.

Neneh Cherry’s comeback from an 18-year recording hiatus will see her also visit the festival along with Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, legendary guitarist J Mascis and Tuareg artist Bombino.

The $22.4 million festival will host French street theatre company Royal De Luxe as they parade 11-metre giant wooden puppets around the city’s streets (below).

Other shows include John Marsden and artist Shaun Tan’s picture book about colonisation from the view of native Australian animals, The Rabbits, in a opera performance featuring singer Kate Miller-Heidke, and the English National Opera’s take on Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

“We’re very fortunate this year that almost everyone we wanted to come to the festival has said yes, so actually the scale of it and the intensity of it is increased by the fact that people around the world, artists around the world really want to come and play in Perth,” festival director Jonathan Holloway told the ABC.

“It’s by far the largest festival Perth has had.”