Brisbane Festival | |
---|---|
Genre | Major arts, theatre, music and cultural festival |
Frequency | Annual |
Location(s) | Brisbane, Queensland |
Country | Australia |
Inaugurated | 1996 |
Most recent | 1 September – 23 September 2023 |
Organised by | Brisbane City Council Queensland Government |
Website | brisbanefestival |
Brisbane Festival is one of Australia's leading international arts festivals, and is held each September in Brisbane, Australia. [1]
Its presence dominates the city for three weeks in September and its line-up of classical and contemporary music, theatre, dance, comedy, opera, circus and major public events such as Riverfire attracts an audience of around one million people every year.
In 2019, Artistic Director David Berthold transformed the Festival into Australia's largest major international arts festival, presenting more works to more people than any other. [2]
Brisbane Festival was first held in 1996 as a joint initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council, intended to foster the arts. The festival evolved from Brisbane's Warana Festival, first held in 1962 following on from the successful Centenary of Celebrations in 1959. [3] The Warana Festival was an annual Spring extravaganza which included a 2 hour parade through the city streets featuring decorated floats, marching girls, entertainers, and bands, under the blue Brisbane skies. Warana, which is an Aboriginal word for "blue skies", endured until the early 1990s and was eventually transformed into the more sophisticated Brisbane Festival of today. [4]
Originally held biennially, Brisbane Festival became an annual event in 2009 when it merged with Riverfire. The festival has had five artistic directors; Tony Gould (1996–2004), Lyndon Terracini (2006–2009), Noel Staunton (2010–2014), David Berthold (2015–2019) and Louise Bezzina (2020–2025). [5]
The 2016 event featured 3D street art. [6]
The 2020 festival was estimated to have generated $14 million into the Brisbane economy. [7] Because of the pandemic Riverfire was excluded from the event in 2020. [8]
In 2021, the theme for the festival was Brightly Brisbane. It featured light installations in several locations. [7]
Parramatta is a satellite city of Sydney, Australia's largest city and the capital of New South Wales. It is the primary central business district (CBD) for Greater Western Sydney, located approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Central Sydney, on the banks of the Parramatta River.
Brisbane is the capital of the Australian state of Queensland and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of South East Queensland, which includes several other regional centres and cities. The central business district is situated within a peninsula of the Brisbane River about 15 km (9 mi) from its mouth at Moreton Bay. Brisbane is located in the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor and D'Aguilar mountain ranges. It sprawls across several local government areas, most centrally the City of Brisbane. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite.
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Charleville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Murweh, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Charleville had a population of 2,551 people.
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The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, which draws its powers from the Libraries Act 1988. It contains a significant portion of Queensland's documentary heritage, major reference and research collections, and is an advocate of and partner with public libraries across Queensland. The Library is at Kurilpa Point, within the Queensland Cultural Centre on the Brisbane River at South Bank.
Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country. The waters of Torres Strait include the only international border in the area contiguous with the Australian mainland, between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The culture of Brisbane derives from Australian culture and incorporates a strong history in the performing arts, music and sport.
In 1975, Brisbane's first FM radio station began broadcasting from a studio at the University of Queensland Student Union. 4ZZ became a catalyst for the development of original music in the city. Bands such as The Saints, The Go-Betweens, gerrymander and the boundaries, The Riptides and The Laughing Clowns established an ecosystem for alternative music that continues to flourish.
Adelaide Street is a major street in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It runs between and parallel to Queen Street and Ann Street.
Royal tours of Australia by the British royal family have been taking place since 1867. Since then, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the Royal Family, though only six of those came before 1954. Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil; she first did so on 3 February 1954, when she was 27 years old. During her sixteen journeys, the Queen visited every Australian state and the two major territories.
Brisbane Grammar School (BGS) is an independent, fee charging, non-denominational, day and boarding school for boys, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the oldest secondary boys school in Brisbane. Some of the Brisbane Grammar School Buildings are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
Brisbane Festival Hall was an indoor arena located on the southern corner of Albert Street and Charlotte Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It operated from 1910 to 2003, before being demolished to make the Oak Festival Towers apartment building and hotel.
La Boite Theatre, founded as the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society, is an Australian theatre company based in Brisbane, Queensland. La Boite was established in 1925 and is Australia’s longest continuously running theatre company.
Turrbal is an Aboriginal Australian language of the Turrbal people of the Brisbane area of Queensland.
Wallace Bishop is a specialty retailer of jewellery, timepieces and decorative arts in Australia.
Carl Magnus Oscar Friström, generally known as Oscar Fristrom, was a portrait painter and art teacher born in Sweden, who had a substantial career in Queensland and South Australia, and was best known for his depictions of Aboriginal Australians.
Mary Josephine Bedford was a philanthropist in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, who was involved in family welfare and children's development through her involvement with the Playground Association and the Crèche and Kindergarten Association. She was awarded the Order of St Sava for her services as an ambulance driver in World War I.
Media related to Brisbane Festival at Wikimedia Commons