Perth Festival announces First Artists for 2026

Lacrima, a French theatre epic set in the cut-throat world of haute couture is the first work announced for Perth Festival 2026, alongside electronic composer Max Cooper, mercurial singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya, and the Australian return of UK rock band Black Country, New Road

Perth Festival today announced its 2026 season will open with the monumental French theatre production Lacrima. Alongside this epic work, international artists Max Cooper, Nilüfer Yanya and Black Country, New Road are unveiled as the first acts programmed in the East Perth Power Station cultural hub as it is confirmed to return next year after its wildly popular 2025 debut.

 

 

Taking the opening weekend spotlight at the State Theatre Centre of WA, renowned French director and filmmaker Caroline Guiela Nguyen pulls back the velvet curtain on the world of haute couture. Lacrima unfolds like a cinematic thriller: dazzling in its spectacle, unflinching in its humanity, unforgettable in its emotional impact.

Paris, 2025. A prestigious fashion house receives an important commission – to create the wedding dress for a British royal princess. Beauty, secrecy and power collide in story of the creation of a dress and the secret that ties it together.

From a Parisian haute couture fashion house to an embroidery workshop in Mumbai, to a lace atelier in Alençon, invisible hands labour in silence, stitching threads of ambition, sacrifice and survival. All for a dress that will spend mere minutes in the spotlight.

Following five-star reviews and sell-out seasons across Europe, Perth Festival will host Lacrima at the Heath Ledger Theatre, Friday 6 February – Tuesday 10 February.

Perth Festival Artistic Director Anna Reece :

I am very proud to welcome Caroline Nguyen’s Lacrima into this year’s Perth Festival. A thrilling cinematic production of truth-telling about the hidden costs of couture. This is theatre that takes hold of you – complex, surprising and deeply human.

Lacrima grips from start to finish, pulling you deep into the exquisite and the brutal truths of high fashion. Bringing major international work like this is vital to Perth Festival – connecting us to a global conversation. To have a work of this scale and brilliance here in Western Australia is an absolute coup.

After the incredible response to the East Perth Power Station in 2025 – a Lotterywest community experience attracting over 80,000 people – Perth Festival confirms its major cultural precinct
will return in 2026, announcing Max Cooper, global visionary of contemporary electronica, to open the Main Stage program on Friday 6 February. Former geneticist turned sonic innovator, he fuses cutting-edge sound design with immersive visuals to transform industrial architecture into a living, breathing artwork.

As proclaimed by BBC Radio, Cooper is ‘always epic to see live, totally immersive.’ Step inside his world as he reimagines the canvas of the Power Station with hypnotic beats and jaw-dropping digital art.

Fresh off touring across the US and UK and supporting massive acts like Lorde and Alex G, Nilüfer Yanya touches down in Perth for the first time, performing at East Perth Power Station on Friday 20 February.

My Method Actor garnered overwhelming praise for peering into the crevices of life with comforting strings, soul-tinged melodies and swooning harmonies. Perth audiences can experience ‘one of Britain’s most exciting young singer-songwriters’ (The Guardian) perform her electrifying brand of indie pop live.

From sweaty Brixton basements to the biggest festival stages on the planet – Black Country, New Road are bringing their genre-defying brilliance to the Festival for one unforgettable night on the Main Stage, Sunday 22 February.

 

 

Tender, theatrical and totally enduring, Black Country, New Road is made up of a mix of classically trained and self-taught multi-instrumentalists. The band built their cult following in the late 2010s at London’s legendary venue The Windmill, sharing stages with friends like Squid and Black Midi, before being dubbed ‘the best band in the world’ by The Quietus.

Renowned for their shape-shifting sound and electrifying live presence, this band has evolved into something truly special – three distinct vocalists, layers of intricate instrumentation and a raw emotional edge that hits straight to the heart. Now, with their third album Forever Howlong, they’re embracing a lush, folk-infused new direction full of sweeping strings, recorders, mandolins and rotating lead vocals.

Perth Festival Artistic Director Anna Reece:

East Perth Power Station is back, and we couldn’t be happier. Its industrial bones will thrum this summer with Max Cooper’s expansive electronica and epic visual immersive take over,
Nilüfer Yanya’s smokey pop, and Black Country, New Road’s instrumental invention. Just a taste of the punch and variety this extraordinary venue will unleash this summer.

Film lovers can also rejoice in the return of Lotterywest Films at UWA Somerville. Vouchers for the season are on sale today alongside our early release artists. Get in early to secure a 6-pack or 12-pack and get ready for another unforgettable season of world-class cinema under the stars.

 

 

Lacrima, Max Cooper, Nilüfer Yanya and Black Country, New Road tickets are on sale from midday today AWST for Festival Club members. General release will be on sale Friday 26 September at perthfestival.com.au.

The full program for Perth Festival 2026 will be announced on Wednesday 22 October.

Festival Club members get early access first: sign up today at perthfestival.com.au/festival-club

---

For more information click HERE