Her big event used to be an annual affair, but now Louise Bezzina is busy all year long in her new role as CEO and artistic director of Brisbane Powerhouse.
I spoke to her before she gave an overview of her program for 2026 at a special event on-site on Tuesday night.
Bezzina came to the job after years of success at Brisbane Festival, where she tended to embrace the city more than anyone else ever had.
So, the pivot to the Brisbane Powerhouse job seemed like a natural progression, albeit a very busy one.
“I feel like I am running a festival every day here,” Bezzina says. “It’s a wonderful adventure with lots of quirks and joy and the ability to have programming all the time. This place is extraordinary. It is this year-round arts and cultural Mecca that does so many things. It’s part of the fabric of this city.”
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And this city is where Bezzina has made her mark – here and on the Gold Coast, where for many years she ran Bleach Festival, also an annual event.
Now it is, as she says, a festival every day. Bezzina has inherited a busy calendar with a framework of big events that she’s happy to have, although expect some Bezzina tweaks along the way.
Tuesday night’s event was very much about putting a new spin to one of Brisbane Powerhouse’s most popular events – Night Feast.
Brisbane’s acclaimed culinary festival is shifting seasons, returning this year from July 29 to August 23, marking a bold new chapter for the festival by bringing cooler nights and hotter plates to the Brisbane Powerhouse precinct.
With fire, warmth and longer evenings at its heart, winter is setting the stage for the ultimate Night Feast experience, inviting audiences to fully immerse themselves in a world of food, art and music that define the festival. As well as the food there will be immersive art concepts that have made Night Feast one of Brisbane’s most anticipated annual events.
Better Off Red, an indulgent, one-day-only Long Lunch in collaboration with well-known Brisbane eateries, Bosco and Blackbird, won’t just be about food. Expect artful theatrics in a celebration of all things crimson transforming the performance lawn space within the riverside precinct into a theatrical daytime feast. Tickets are now on sale.
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“Better Off Red is more than a long lunch, it is a theatrical collision of fine dining and performance art that embodies the Night Feast spirit, even under the midday sun,” Bezzina says.
She adds that we can expect more of her own content in 2027. Any incoming AD must work with what has already been programmed, to a degree, but Bezzina has already begun her own flourishes. Such as Ubuntu Social, a free, all-ages celebration of culture which will take over the Brisbane Powerhouse precinct on June 21 with world music, dance, community connections, workshops, markets and food in a vibrant outdoor event sponsored by major donor Carolyn Vincent, who is also having the venue’s foyer named after her.
Vincent runs the Ubuntu Foundation, which supports projects she believes in.
“Carolyn has long been a supporter of my work,” Bezzina says, happy to have her on board the good ship Brisbane Powerhouse as it steams towards 2032.
Expect the regular events such as Brisbane Comedy Festival in April and May, the World Press Photo Exhibition in May and June, Brisbane Festival in September, Brisbane Writers Festival in October and the festival of queer arts and culture, Melt, in October and November, including the River Pride parade. Bezzina has something special cooked up for that, she promises.
Expect more art, too, and that means artists, with the talented Rachel Burke and Elisa Jane Carmichael in residence during the year.
“We want more and more artists to bring to life these incredible walls,” she says. And she fully intends to make that happen.
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