Are you looking to maximize the enjoyment of your festival? Circle the 20th of September on the calendar. You’ll need skates for the ride between the venues. However, it’s a great day to enjoy the best of Brisbane.
Begin with this free exhibition that reflects on the centenary celebrations of the Anzac tradition and the lens of amateur, professional, and school-age photographers.
11 am Kaput
The all-ages performance was last seen at the Sydney festival. Sydney Festival shows circus artist Tom Flanagan celebrate the magic of slapstick gurus Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin with a hilarious clown dance.
Noon Exxopolis: Architects of Air
Enjoy a wandering experience before lunchtime. Enjoy lunch in this multi-colored inflatable sculpture that has earned fans all over the world. Made from tiny pieces of colored plastic, the design of its stained glass windows resembles Islamic patterns of tiles.
2 pm Deluge
Time to be serious. The Queensland floods caused a lot of damage to the state but also gave its artists inspiration. The piece, which was developed with Australian as well as Korean performers, draws upon the myths and rituals of the past to explore the inexplicable nature’s force.
3 pm QUT Sessions
Discover one of the hottest new trends in the showcase of talent for free emerging from Queensland University of Technology. Songwriter and singer Charlotte Emily shows her boho style while the folk 5-piece Curious Finch demonstrates the band’s skills on the ukulele and djembe.
4 pm Soap
A lot more fun than a normal bathtub dip, Soap mixes circus, comedy, and acrobatics, along with beautiful sexiness and fantastic music to add some spice. Avoid in the first row unless you’re wearing your brolly.
5 pm Twilight Music Series
Visit us to get a taste of rising superstar Daniel Lee Kendall’s most recent tunes and enjoy an ice cream sandwich along one of the banks of the Brisbane River in the evening as the sunsets.
6-26 September, 5-7 pm, River Quay Green, South Bank
5:30 pm Limbo
Knife throwers, fire breathers, sword swallowers, Sword swallowers, knife throwers. Limbo might seem like a typical circus, but the added jolt of danger and the chemistry between performers will leave you on high alert.
6:30 pm Tawdry Heartburn’s Manic Cures
Show your heart and free cuticles to six-foot-five nail tech Tawdry Heartburn. After a brief burst of confession, you can leave an unidentified secret in his ‘gossip’ machine in the event that you’re brave enough.
8 pm The Perfect American
It turns out that Walt Disney wasn’t cryogenically frozen when he passed away (he died in a cremation); however, he lived an amazing life. Philip Glass imagines his final days in this epic opera featuring fanciful interactions between Abraham Lincoln and Andy Warhol. The show was a controversial show that divided reviewers in Madrid as well as London; however, it is getting the Australian premiere.
15-20 September, 6.30 pm, 8 pm, QPAC Concert Hall
8.30 pm American Music Club
Keep getting your Stateside fix with a late-night session of Latin dance and big band music that Brisbane-based Brisbane performers perform.
11:45 pm Dune Rats
The night will end with a high. The Brissie punks will pound into the Spiegeltent using the same zeal used during SXSW, Splendour in the Grass, and Sound City, which saw their debut album climb into the top spot on Alternative charts.