
TNQ Writer
Watch a live music show and get your groove on during your holiday to Cairns. With an incredible line-up of musical acts over the summer, you’re guaranteed to be tapping your toes, singing at the top of your voice, and dancing like no one is watching!
Sit down and relax in the comfort of the Cairns Performing Arts Centre (CPAC) or stand up and dance in the historic Tanks Arts Centre to a line-up booked to rival a capital city with a mix of rock, pop, blues, jazz, hip hop and instrumental from Australian and International artists.
The annual Cairns Summer Sounds series kicks off the first of their five artist performances on Friday, 13 January, with high-energy, hip-hop heavyweights, The Thundamentals. There’s no rest for the wicked, though, as Aussie live gig warriors Tex Perkins and Matt Walker interrupt the series and take to the stage to rock your socks off on Friday, 20 January.

The Thundamentals are kicking off Cairns Summer Sounds
Summer will truly sizzle in February as the second and third Cairns Summer Sounds series artists take the stage by storm at the Tanks Arts Centre. Too famous for just one show, the distinctly Australian and live show legends, The Cat Empire, play back-to-back shows on Friday, 3 and Saturday, 4 February.
If all this live action makes you breathless, there is time to cool off and chill out at CPAC as you immerse yourself in the emotive power of Australian Eurovision Royalty, Dami Im, on Saturday, 11 February. Stay an extra week and continue your journey on Saturday, 18 February, and take in multiple award-winning R&B and pop singer/songwriter Jessica Mauboy.
The fourth instalment of Cairns Summer Sounds will see a return to the Tanks Arts Centre to listen intently to the licks of leading bluesman and two-time Grammy Award nominee Eric Bibb on Friday, 24 February. Cairns will provide the rare opportunity to see and hear the five-decade career of this incredible artist in the intimate, historic Tanks space – it’s your chance to get up close and personal with an American Icon.

Jessica Mauboy
Jessica Mauboy

Eric Bibb
Eric Bibb

Cat Empire
Cat Empire

Dami Im
Dami Im
If the Cairns Summer Sounds don’t get your groove going, enjoy a holiday indulgence and rewind to 1987 as you dance 500 miles in the aisles at CPAC to The Proclaimers on Tuesday, 28 February.
For those not enjoying a Cairns summer holiday in 2023 or are just bursting to return to the tropics, fall into the lush green of a tropical Autumn and check out performance dates for “The Hendrix of the Sahara”, Vieux Farka Toure or the final instalment of the Cairns Summer Sounds series with Indi pop singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly. Rounding out what is really an endless summer, will be one of the greatest acoustic guitarists of all time – Tommy Emmanuel, passionate lyricist Lior and the award-winning Michael Franti accompanied by Spearhead.
Summer in Cairns has never sounded so good!