QMF’s well-trodden music trails win global cities gong
Music is more than entertainment, it’s an engine for regional growth, says Queensland Music Festival chief Daryl Raven.
When Queensland Music Festival’s Music Trails was named Best Music Tourism Initiative at the global Music Cities Awards in Arkansas last week, the applause was more than just recognition for a program.
It was proof of something bigger – that music, when harnessed with vision and purpose, is a powerful economic engine for regional and remote communities, with equally important cultural and social impact.
At its core, music is entertainment. It brings joy, connection and shared experience. A recent study by the Victorian Music Development Office found one in three Australians name music as their top passion. Here in Queensland we are proving that passion can also be a driver of sustainable growth.
QLD Music Trails was launched in 2023 as a cultural legacy project in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The decade-long vision reimagines how audiences experience music by spotlighting regional destinations, ecotourism and First Nations culture. Each trail is co-designed with local communities to create journeys that generate tourism, support artists, create jobs and build social connection.
In less than three years, QLD Music Trails has already delivered remarkable outcomes. More than 92,000 attendees have joined the trails, generating $13.7 million in economic impact. We’ve engaged 1800 artists, creatives and crew, employed 1150 First Nations artists and businesses, connected with 28 regional and remote communities and reached more than three million people online. These are extraordinary results in such a short time frame, and we are only just getting started.
Music is not just culture, it’s economy. It’s not just performance, it’s placemaking
That scale comes to life in very different ways. In the Tropics Trail, the Dream Aloud Festival placed First Nations voices at the heart of the program, celebrating songlines and language while stimulating local tourism and jobs. In The Outback Trail, thousands of adventurers set off on a self-drive journey that blended sunset concerts with red dirt dance floors and country hospitality, boosting visitor nights and local businesses along the way. Different landscapes, different stories, but one powerful truth: music activates entire communities.
That’s the driving force behind QLD Music Trails. By 2032, our goal is to connect more than 70 destinations across the state through a series of cultural experiences that span cities, towns and regions. When the world arrives for the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games, visitors won’t just see stadiums. They’ll encounter an entire state alive with song, story and community. They’ll experience a quintessentially Queensland story that can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world.
And importantly, it will be Queenslanders who benefit most. Local councils will welcome visitors into their towns. Artists will find platforms to perform, create and grow. Businesses – from hotels to cafés to tour operators – will see increased demand. And young people in regional areas will see viable pathways into creative careers without having to leave the communities they love.
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Music is not just culture, it’s economy. It’s not just performance, it’s placemaking. When supported with the right vision and values-aligned partners, it becomes one of the most sustainable tools we have to foster growth, pride and resilience.
Queensland is showing the world what happens when music is taken seriously as a driver of development. This week’s global award recognition is validation of that approach. But the true measure will come over the next decade as we build a legacy where the sound of Queensland’s music is as iconic as the Great Barrier Reef and as enduring as the red dirt of the Outback.
Daryl Raven is CEO of Queensland Music Festival.