Culture

Laurie Anderson to make Wales debut at Llais Festival

15 Sep 2026 3 minute read

Laurie Anderson playing at The Brighton Festival. Photo ©David McHugh

Mark Mansfield

Pioneering multimedia artist Laurie Anderson will perform in Wales for the first time as part of this year’s Llais Festival.

The American artist will headline the five-day event at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, which runs from October 7-11 as part of Cardiff Music City Festival.

Anderson will perform Friends and Teachers on October 8, a show created especially for Llais.

The programme brings together international and Welsh artists across gospel, folk, experimental music, orchestral performance and contemporary sound.

It includes Grammy-winning gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama, Buena Vista All Stars, Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab and Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan.

Composer and sitar player Jasdeep Singh Degun will perform with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, while other artists appearing include Bess Atwell, Tristwch y Fenywod, Tomos Williams, Jordan Playfair, Shovel Dance Collective, Naima Bock and Landless.

Hannigan will host Sirens on October 10, bringing together a group of guest artists including Welsh singer Charlotte Church, Kate Stables, Amanda Bergman and Theodora Byrne Trio for an evening of collaborative performances.

The festival will open on October 7 with the Welsh Music Prize 2026, celebrating the best album released by a Welsh artist over the past year.

Llais will also feature artists recognised in this year’s Oram Awards, which celebrate women, trans, non-binary and gender-expansive artists working with sound, music and technology, in partnership with Tŷ Cerdd. This year’s winners are due to be announced shortly.

Radio Platfform will present Art of Spoken Word on October 10, featuring 11 young poets performing original poetry alongside music and art.

The event has been developed with the CELF Project at National Museum Cardiff and will be accompanied by a celebration marking 10 years of Radio Platfform, which was launched at the first Llais Festival.

VR Cinema

Alongside the live programme, Wales Millennium Centre will stage its first VR Cinema from September 28 until October 11, featuring four immersive virtual reality works.

They include Ôl | Haunts, a Welsh coming-of-age story set in North Wales in 2006.

The production became the first Welsh-language VR work to be selected for the immersive competition at the Venice Film Festival, which took place earlier this month.

Llais is centred on music, performance and storytelling using the human voice and forms part of the wider Cardiff Music City Festival.

The city-wide festival, which also encompasses Sŵn and the Welsh Music Prize, will feature gigs, installations and other events between October 2 and 17.

Llais runs at Wales Millennium Centre from October 7-11.

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