Full throttle: This (festive) beating heart
Verso Projects. Festival Village at South Bank will be the beating heart of this year’s Brisbane Festival and it will run from dawn to dusk and beyond, every single day.
The heart of Brisbane Festival this year is Verso Projects. Festival Village at South Bank, an expansive day-to-night destination bringing together major productions, free experiences and nightly spectacle in one riverside precinct, September 4 to 26.
Home to the festival’s opening night celebrations and one of Brisbane’s premier Riverfire viewing locations, the precinct will also feature the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, Bright Nights and Giant Sing Along, along with wellbeing experiences, workshops, family activities and live music.
Audiences can discover something new from first light until well after dark, with registrations now open for workshops and selected activities to help festivalgoers plan their Festival Village experience.
Brisbane Festival artistic director Ebony Bott shares her vision for transforming South Bank into a community beacon during the event.
“What I hope for Festival Village is that it becomes a place where people feel they belong – somewhere to meet, spend time together and connect with their city and with each other,” Bott says. “From First Nations ceremony and storytelling at sunrise to movement, music, creativity and play throughout the day, there will always be something to discover. Whether you come for a major performance … or a midnight singalong, we want everyone to feel that this is their Festival Village.”
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Each morning will begin with opportunities to move, reflect and connect. Audiences are invited to welcome the day through the weekly Sunrise Ceremony – Bikki Wantimaa, honouring the lands on which Brisbane Festival takes place – before easing into a rotating program of weekday wellbeing sessions including yoga, sound healing, breathwork and pilates.
The global phenomenon DAYBREAKER invites audiences to greet the day through high-energy DJ sets, dance and community, while Wake Up & Sing fills the village with performances from Latin and Auslan choirs. Wake Up with the Con offers a rare glimpse inside the daily practice of Queensland Conservatorium students as percussionists, jazz ensembles, brass players and string musicians rehearse in the open air.
Festival Village will reach full stride during the day with an interactive program designed to encourage participation as much as performance.
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At its centre, Giant Sing Along invites audiences of every age to step up to one of 32 microphones and add their voice to a joyful, ever-evolving community choir. Created by Montreal studio Daily tous les jours, the interactive installation features a crowd-pleasing playlist spanning soul classics through to contemporary favourites, with Brisbane audiences helping choose the final songs. Equal parts performance, participation and celebration, it promises to become one of village’s most uplifting gathering points.
Across the Village Green, audiences can drop into free dance sessions ranging from Bollywood and belly dancing to Hip Hop, Latin and line dancing. A workshop program invites curious minds to try everything from puppetry with Dead Puppet Society and circus skills with Flipside Circus to African dance, Queensland Ballet workshops and collaborative creative experiences inspired by language, movement and visual art.
Families take centre stage with a rich mix of performances and hands-on activities designed for young festivalgoers.
Indigenous-led contemporary circus Living Sculptures: How the birds got their colours shares First Nations storytelling through acrobatics and movement, while children can dance with ABC favourite Come Dance with Tom, discover Polynesian language and music with Tui and Friends and take part in free creative workshops. A dedicated Family Fun Day supported by Brisbane Airport on September 20 will bring many of these experiences together in one vibrant celebration, with performances, workshops and activities across the Village.
Ideas are equally at home in Festival Village, with the Talks of the Town series bringing together artists and creative leaders from across the festival for lively conversations exploring performance, culture and contemporary life. The village will also host two performances of Generations and Dynasties, with one exploring the legacy of Uncle Graham Brady and Jungaji, and another celebrating the musical lineage of Deline, Naurita and Merindi Briscoe. Meanwhile, Musical Mantras with Camerata offers reflective Sunday morning performances beneath Brisbane’s spring skies.
At the heart of the village, Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent hosts a season of standout productions, from the Olivier Award-nominated, West End hit The Choir of Man and Opera Queensland’s acclaimed Australian work Are You Lonesome Tonight to family favourite The Listies: This Show is a Joke.
Nearby, Piano Man celebrates Queensland musical talent through a changing line-up of guest performers, while live bands and DJs keep the Village Green buzzing each evening before audiences gather for Bright Nights by ANZ, the festival’s spectacular nightly display of fountains, waterscreens, lasers and soaring water jets choreographed to an exclusive soundtrack by The Veronicas.
Festival Village is the perfect place to enjoy Riverfire, supported by Australian Retirement Trust, with one of the city’s largest licensed viewing locations. Far from signalling the end of the evening, fireworks give way to another night of live music, Giant Sing Along, DJs and Bright Nights, keeping the precinct alive long after the final shell has faded from the sky.
Verso Projects. Festival Village, South Bank, will run throughout Brisbane Festival, September 4-26.
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