LAWNYA VAWNYA 15: SPRING NEWSLETTER
Happening in St. John's, NL from June 4th - 7th, 2025
LV15 OFFICIAL SCHEDULE
BEVERLY AND ELIZABETH GLENN-COPELAND, CARTEL MADRAS, FRAUD PERRY, JULIANNA RIOLINO, OVERLAND and many more!
Lawnya Vawnya: An Exposition of Independent Art & Culture is a non-profit music and art festival that presents some of the most innovative independent music and art from local and national stages. Lawnya Vawnya returns this year with its fifteenth installment from June 4th to 7th, 2025 in Downtown St. John’s, Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland and Labrador).
Wednesday, June 4th, 2025
LV 15 will kick off on with an online presentation of Ever Deadly, an immersive, visceral music and cinema experience featuring Tanya Tagaq (NU), avant-garde Inuit throat singer, and created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Chelsea McMullan (ON). Including an online panel discussion with both filmmakers moderated by Janet Cull (NL) all in partnership with St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. The film and panel will be available all day through the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival website.
In-person events taking place on Wednesday include a reading by award winning Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien (BC/QC) reading from her most recent book, The Book of Records (2025), with music by Marlaena Moore (QC) at Bannerman Brewing Co. and performances by Absolute Losers (PEI), Book Club (NL), Swimming (NL), hosted by Eda Kumquat (NL) at Gower Street United.
Thursday, June 5th, 2025
The second day of LV15 will include an Observational Comics Workshop by Elijah Janka (NL) and a screening and Q&A with IWant2BeOnTV: Alex Apostolidis & Charvel Rappos (QC). Both will take place at Eastern Edge Studios.
Thursday will also include performances by Beverly and Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland (NB). Glenn, a legendary singer, composer and transgender activist who has been gathering momentum in recent years thanks to a reissue of the extraordinary folk-jazz explorations of his debut self-titled album (1970) and the widespread discovery of his acclaimed masterpiece Keyboard Fantasies (1986); and Topanga (NL) at the First Light Center for Performance and Creativity, as well as a show at The Ship featuring Liz Fagan Band (NL), Marc McLaughlin (NB) and Sasha Cay (QC).
Friday, June 6th, 2025
Friday will include several exciting events beginning with the first day of our annual Merch and Print Fair at Eastern Edge Studios. The fair will coincide with the Downtown Music Crawl starting at 12pm at Solitude Vintage!
LV15 will also be hosting professional development events at the Alt Hotel on Friday including a music video panel moderated by Moira Demorest (ON), a modular synthesis workshop with CLEO LEIGH (NL), and a reading event with Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland (ON), Colleen Coco Collins (NS), Emma Cole (NL) and Lindsay Harington (NL) in partnership with Riddle Fence.
Friday evening events include shows at the Ship, the Rockhouse, The SPACE, and Oiche. The SPACE will host a special livestreamed edition of The Alex A**********s Show : Food Fight: A Telethon Battle of the Bands Against Food Insecurity featuring performances by Andy and The Dannys (QC), Rad Gushue (NL) and Rat & Ratt (NL). The Ship will host Little Fauna (NL), Penny & the Pits (NB) and Miesha and The Spanks (AB). At The Rockhouse Albert Dalton (NL), Cartel Madras (AB), Fraud Perry (QC), with /garbagefile (NL) as host. The final event of the day will take place at Oiche featuring CLEO LEIGH (NL), Liftkit (PEI), and QUIN (NL).
Saturday, June 7th, 2025
The final day of LV15 will begin with day two of the Merch and Print Fair from 12-4 pm at Eastern Edge Studios. Panel discussions and workshops at the Alt Hotel kick off at 12pm with presentations by Foreignerz (AB), Jack Etchegary (NL), Joe Fowler (NL) and Madeline Thien (QC).
Saturday will also feature shows at The Ship, the Rockhouse, Oiche, and in the Baird Building Garage. The Garage Show will include CELL DETH (PEI), Durex (QC), hangyourhead (NL), Life Crisis (NL) and snitfit (NL). Performances by Bus People (NL), Mantourage (QC) and Steel Toe (NL) will kick off the evening on Saturday at The Ship. The Rockhouse will feature Andrew Smith Band (NL), Irma Gerd (NL), JULIANNA RIOLINO (ON), and Laughing (QC), while Oiche will feature performances by Frankie Teardrop (QC), NANCY MUSIC (NL) and Overland (BC).
The Schedule and ALL individual tickets and festival passes are available now at www.lawnyavawnya.com.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The Government of Canada, ArtsNL, FACTOR, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the City of St. John’s, Year of The Arts 2024, SOCAN Foundation, Celebrate NL and MusicNL. We recognize our partners Alt Hotel St. John’s, Terre Restaurant, Exclaim!, Quidi Vidi Brewery, Print Three, Bannerman Brewing, Eastern Edge, Riddle Fence, SJIWFF, St. Michael's Printshop, I Don’t Do Comics, Nickel Independent Film Festival and many more community organizations and businesses whose support goes above and beyond each year.