Signature pink and white banners start generating Brisbane Fest excitement mid-year for the city’s biggest arts and cultural event. Spanning 23 gloriously jam-packed days from August 30 to September 21, this year’s festival will offer a smorgasbord of 1,000-plus events, featuring 320 free shows, more than 20 premieres from around the world, and almost 200 First Nations artists. The bulk of the action will take 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.
It’s not quite Milan Fashion Week, but Brisbane Festival is set to showcase the latest trends and homegrown talent with a series of fashion-focused events. Leading the pack is Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show, a dazzling collision of fashion, music, pop culture, cabaret and art, making its exclusive Aussie premiere down a runway in South Bank Piazza. Queensland Indigenous artist Grace Lillian Lee will debut a bespoke couture piece, created in collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris, in this spectacular revue-style show.
Film buffs can get their fix with screenings of the never-before-seen hybrid production, Volcano, which unfolds over four, 45-minute episodes and combines theatre and dance with a television sci-fi thriller. Other must-sees include the world premiere opera, Straight from the Strait, the global debut of Queensland-based Dancenorth Australia Lighting the Dark, and the first-ever showing of Trent Dalton’s Love Stories.
The festival fun will continue day and night with the return of the globally renowned, multisensory phenomenon Lightscape in Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens. Adding to the spectacle, the dazzling drone show, Skylore – The Rainbow Serpent, will take place on the Festival’s closing weekend (September 19-21), featuring more than 400 drones that will animate a spectacular First Nations story. As always, Brisbane Festival will culminate with Riverfire, the city’s biggest and most-loved fireworks spectacular on Saturday, August 31.
You can explore the full program of 1,000-plus performances here.