Brisbane Festival: Citywide Art & Colour Takeover
Prepare to be captivated: the Brisbane Festival 2024 is a vibrant explosion of Queensland arts and culture, primed to ignite the city! This year’s festival, spotlighted by News Directory 3, promises large-scale public performances and a renewed focus on local talent. Witness the return of Stephen Page’s “Baleen Moondjan,” a breathtaking showcase of First Nations storytelling. Discover the immersive drone show “Skylore,” plus Queensland Theater’s poignant presentation of “Back to Bilo.” International collaborations, including LA Dance Project’s ”Gems,” further elevate the festival’s reach. Delve into the heart of Brisbane’s artistic renaissance. Discover what’s next …
Queensland Arts to the Forefront at Brisbane Festival 2024
The 2024 Brisbane festival is set to highlight Queensland’s vibrant arts and culture scene with a program emphasizing large-scale public engagement. Artistic director Louise Bezzina said this year’s festival is designed to build excitement toward the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brisbane.
Bezzina emphasized the festival’s ambition to showcase the city’s artistic capabilities. A centerpiece will be a re-staging of Stephen Page’s “Baleen Moondjan,” which premiered at the Adelaide Festival in March. The performance will return to Queensland, the home state of Page and designer Jacob Nash.
“This is a real once in a lifetime chance for Brisbane,” Bezzina said, noting her desire to highlight the ambition of local artists by using the city as a stage.
“Baleen Moondjan” draws inspiration from a story told by Page’s grandmother, a member of the Ngugi/Nunukul/Moondjan people of Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island). It celebrates First Nations connections between baleen whales and totemic systems.
The Brisbane performance will be staged on a barge in the Brisbane River, with audiences seated in a custom-built outdoor theater at Queens Wharf. Nash’s set design features giant whale bones, visible from the Neville Bonner Bridge.
Bezzina said celebrating local First nations stories is vital for the community.The First Nations-designed drone show “Skylore,” which debuted in 2023, will also return, along with the Riverfire event.
Queensland stories will also be featured in “Back to Bilo,” a play co-presented by Queensland Theatre. It recounts the story of the Nadesalingam family, Tamil Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were forcibly removed from Biloela in 2018 after living there for four years.
“Back to Bilo” uses hundreds of hours of interviews to tell the story of the local women who fought to bring the family back home. Bezzina called it a tremendous party of community.
Other Queensland-focused productions include “A Place in the sultan’s Kitchen,” inspired by the family behind a brisbane restaurant. Singer-songwriter josh Hinton will cook his grandmother’s chicken curry while sharing stories of family, community, culture, and food.
The neglected twelfth Night Theatre in Bowen Hills will be transformed into a cabaret club, “Gatsby at the Green Light,” inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”
Bezzina said the Twelfth Night Theatre has old-world charm and potential for something bigger. She is excited to introduce Brisbane audiences to the space in a new way.
International highlights include the Australian premiere of LA Dance Project’s “gems,” choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, and the world premiere of “Bad nature,” a collaboration between the Australasian Dance Collective and Dutch company Club Guy & Roni.
This will be Bezzina’s sixth and final program before she becomes CEO and artistic director of Brisbane Powerhouse.The Brisbane Festival 2024 promises a diverse program of Queensland arts and international collaborations.