With its sunny skies and chilled-out vibes, Queensland is the ultimate playground for outdoor festivals. Every year, thousands of Aussies – armed with disco moves and doof sticks – descend upon the Sunshine State to celebrate the best of our nation’s music, culture and food.
Come September, festival season is in full swing with the return of Brisbane Festival, the city’s biggest arts and culture event, plus Bigsound, the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest music industry bash. But the fun extends far beyond the city, spilling all along the coast to neighbouring towns, including Noosa and the Gold Coast. Here are all the best festivals to add to your calendar in Brisbane and beyond.
February
Laneway has long been a champion of indie music since launching in 2005. The one-day festival is famous for bringing out some of the hottest new acts alongside local talents and international superstars, with previous headliners including Billie Eilish, Tame Impala, Stormzy and Rüfüs Du Sol. You can get hot’n’sweaty in the front row at Brisbane Showgrounds each February, with the festival also hitting up Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.
March
If the words chemistry, biology or physics conjure memories of snoozing through high school classes, wake up! Each March, World Science Festival paints the town red and turns the city’s streets, parks, museums and galleries into an interactive laboratory. More than 1.5 million nerds have dived into the festival since it launched in 2016, attending everything from debates about life on Mars and comedic quiz shows to insect-pinning workshops, live podcast recordings and larger-than-life, free exhibitions. No lab coats required!
March
If you love a good hoedown throwdown, mark your calendars for Australia’s leading country festival, CMC Rocks. Since its debut in the early 2000s, big names like Taylor Swift, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen have lit up the stage, and 2025 promises to be no different, featuring honky-tonk heartthrobs Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Thomas Rhett. Expect plenty of line dancing, live band karaoke and late-night drinks, plus the return of the iconic eight-metre-high cowboy boot. Yee-haw!
May/June
The book lover's favourite fest brings the big guns of the writing world to Brisbane. In 2024, this celebration of Australian thought leaders featured 60 local Brisbane authors, with incredible international speakers joining them on stage at the State Library of Queensland. Australian headline authors included Melissa Lucashenko, Julia Baird and Trent Dalton, while international highlights included Booker Prize-shortlisted author Paul Murray and bestselling crime writer Michael Connelly.
May/June
Experience the best of this jewel of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast at Noosa’s annual eating and drinking festival. It’s been a firm Noosa favourite for more than 20 years, bringing some of Australia’s favourite celebrity chefs to the beachside town, including Adriano Zumbo, Gary Mehigan and Khanh Ong. NEDF's most popular event is the signature Long Lunch, which stretches end-to-end along Noosa Junction’s Arcadia Street. Beer and cider fans aren’t forgotten with plenty of brewers demonstrating their crafts, plus sundowner sessions at The Beach Garden pop-up, produce markets and interactive masterclasses. The Festival Village buzzes day and night with live entertainment, so don’t forget your dancing shoes.
June
Rock and roll into the Gold Coast for Australia’s largest nostalgia festival, which takes place on the famous Coolangatta foreshore. More than 160,000 people make the annual pilgrimage for crowd-favourite events, like the renowned Show’N’Shine display with more than 900 cars, Elvis tribute concert, 1940s moonlight swing dance and classic pin-up pageant. Don’t forget your vintage totes to pick up retro goods and memorabilia from the beachfront markets.
June
From the small country village of Beechmont to the secluded hinterlands of Tamborine Mountain, this month-long food fiesta hosts more than 120 delicious events. It’s backed by some of the biggest names in the local hospo scene, who will cook up stellar paddock-to-plate experiences, including long lunches, guest chef degustations, food tours, and growers’ markets. Get in quick if you want to attend the famous Kalfresh Carrot Day in Australia’s carrot-growing capital. The carrot ice cream from Moffatt’s Fresh Produce is a must-try.
July/August
The Sunshine Coast is good for more than just glittering beaches and tropical rainforests. It’s the stage for one of Queensland’s premier culinary festivals, The Curated Plate, which dishes up 90 food and drink events over ten days. The main courses at the 2024 event were the Sunny Coast Breweries and Distilleries Festivals by Gabs on the banks of the Maroochy River; the return of the ever-popular Sunshine Coast Asian Food Festival; and a special Chefs in Conversation discussion hosted by celebrity cook Hayden Quinn.
August/September
Signature pink and white banners start generating Brisbane Fest excitement mid-year for the city’s biggest arts and cultural event. Spanning three gloriously jam-packed weeks, the festival offers a smorgasbord of 1,000-plus events, featuring hundreds of free shows, world premieres and First Nations artists. The bulk of the action takes place around the CBD and South Bank, with gigs, theatre performances, food trucks and art exhibitions. As always, the festival will culminate with Riverfire, when the city’s biggest firework spectacular explodes over the Brisbane River.
September
Stroll down to the salty shores of Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast for Queensland’s biggest outdoor sculpture show, where the sand and waves become a living canvas for more than 60 striking large-scale works. Now in its 22nd year, this free festival showcases 250 local, interstate and international artists, many of whom use art to confront the environmental threats facing our planet. Throughout the ten-day festival, you can also enjoy guided twilight sculpture walks, artist talks, masterclasses, comedy shows and live music across the city.
September
Check out Bigsound in Fortitude Valley for the best beats and boogies Brisbane has to offer. Bigsound is not only a banging music concert – where Aussie artists like Flume, Spacey Jane, Tones and I, G Flip and The Temper Trap have rocked the stage – but is also the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest music industry gathering, featuring conferences, special events and epic after-parties. At the 2024 Bigsound conference, certified R’n’B superstar Kelis will deliver a major keynote and will be joined by well-known speakers and personalities from across the globe.
October
If you like to bust a move on the thumping, neon dance floor but would like to emerge, like a butterfly, from the sweaty underground den of nightclubs, Listen Out is for you. This massive over-18s festival spotlighting dance, R’n’B, hip hop, electronic and house music returns to the fresh air of Brisbane Showgrounds each Spring, also stopping in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
October/November
Food and art collide under the starring night skies at Brisbane Powerhouse’s ultimate foodie festival, Night Feast. Back for its third iteration this spring, the immersive culinary experience is set to draw more than 100,000 foodies to the riverside to sample signature dishes from Brisbane’s top chef. More than 65,000 wontons, 28,000 skewers and 6,000 oysters were demolished in 2023, and this year’s feast promises to surpass that with big names like Donna Chang, Gerard’s, Mary Mae’s and Gelato Messina headlining the menu. Complementing the killer culinary lineup is a vibrant program of free art and music, along with the dazzling new Melt Festival, celebrating queer art and culture across the city.
October/November
Brisbane’s dedicated open-access festival of queer art and culture is strutting back into town for its second year in 2024. Glitter and sparkles will be sprinkled across four festival hubs and 70-plus venues for this vibrant celebration of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community. You can expect to laugh, cheer, cry and cringe at more than 120 events and 220 individual performances, including dazzling boat parades, drag shows, intimate gigs and late-night parties.
December
Kicking off in Brisbane then blazing through Perth and Adelaide, this epic series of one-day summer festivals is sure to make Sydneysiders and Melburnians sweat with envy. In 2024, Grammy-nominated Aussie producer Fisher will return to home turf as a headliner at the New Year's Eve festival, and will be joined by a powerhouse line-up of international and local acts spanning dance, hip-hop and indie genres. Sounds like a wild and wacky festival you'll wanna be at.
December/January
Woodford Folk Festival is kind of like Australia's own version of Woodstock, circa 1969. The summer of love has been going down on this fertile piece of reclaimed farmland for more than 35 years – and it doesn't seem to show any sign of stopping. Boasting more than 2,000 acts from a mix of local, national and international musicians and performing artists, this folksy, family-friendly festival is all about good times and great classic hits in a rainforest-fringed campground. Running for that awkward in-between time that bridges Christmas and New Year's Eve, this music and art festival is full of butterflies, rainforest birds and very yummy (and ethical) food. Pro tip: Bring gumboots, just in case.
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