For one special weekend, Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre and Civic Square will be transformed into a vibrant festival hub, illuminated by works from some of Australia’s most celebrated puppet companies. The opening night party, will be a roaring good time, with performances from glorious First Nations drag artists Cerulean and Stone Motherless Cold.

Take a seat at Civic Square and experience Tarutharu – The Kaurna Skink (pictured above), the 27-metre luminous puppet. This collaborative artwork, representing the Kaurna Peoples, is the creation of Elizabeth Close Arts (Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara) and Jack Buckskin (Kaurna and Nurungga), developed with Darebin-based puppet company A Blanck Canvas. The project translates and interprets a traditionally oral history, thanks to Jack Buckskin’s close collaboration with Kaurna Elders: a tale rendered in artwork by acclaimed Contemporary Aboriginal visual artist Elizabeth Close and brought to life by puppeteers A Blanck Canvas.

Visitors can then walk through to the main hall and step into a giant Cochlea by Snuff Puppets, a colossal sculptural body part that shares the experiences of trans and gender-diverse people. Inside the 15-metre Cochlea, real, uplifting and poignant stories of trans, non-binary and gender diverse individuals are shared, at a time when diversity of human experiences needs to be celebrated, more than ever.