Adelaide’s famous 4 metre long Big Red Couch and a 3.6 metre Big Lanikai Ukulele are travelling by road from Adelaide to Cairns to encourage people to ‘Get off ya couch’, play the uke – and come to the Cairns Ukulele Festival’, to be held in beautiful Cairns, North Queensland, Australia from 1-6 July 2014.

Michael Jones, ‘Australia’s Living Poet’, is the driver behind the tour that sets off from the Big Scotsman at Scotty’s Motel on Today – Wednesday 21 May 2014 at 10.30am – stopping off at Aussie icons on the way to Cairns, including the Big Lobster, the Big Mango and Australia Zoo.

“Many Adelaide-ians will remember the Big Red Couch which was on display in a furniture shop window for several years; and which I was lucky enough to save from obscurity and take on the road to promote living a full and active life,”

“This may be the biggest thing to happen to Get Off Ya Couch; I am very excited to have the support of the Cairns Ukulele Festival which is sponsoring the road trip to spread the message that life is for living.” Michael said.

Gaby Thomasz, Cairns Ukulele Festival Director said, “Michael is an amazing and passionate person and his philosophy fits well with the ukulele, the happiest instrument on earth”.

“Many of our regular visitors drive to the festival from other states, with one guy driving across the Nullabor from Perth every year – if enough people get off their couches, we can smash the World Record in 2014.” Gaby said.

Michael has been travelling with the couch visiting schools and community groups to encourage people to get out and experience life to the fullest and will meet up with ukulele groups and visit music stores along the way.

“Everyone has hard times in their life and I was fortunate at a tough time in mine to seize the opportunity to help others who have experienced similar struggles.” Michael said.

It was Steve Irwin’s early death that inspired him to write poetry and subsequently Michael has appeared on Australia’s Got Talent 2007, the Second Poet’s Brawl, the Tenterfield Bush Oracles 2007, was runner-up at the Caboolture Country Urban Festival and hosts his own show at Tamworth Country Music every year.

Michael’s adventures will be documented on the festival web site and Facebook.

For tour dates, please follow this link. If you’d like to participate, get in touch by filling out the online contact form on the same web page.