From dancers on melting ice to giant jellyfish – BLEACH Festival has unveiled its biggest program yet
Every spring, BLEACH Festival transforms the Gold Coast into one giant creative playground, filling unexpected spaces with contemporary art, theatre, music, dance and immersive experiences. This October, the city’s leading contemporary arts celebration returns with one of its biggest programs yet – bringing close to 50 events across 11 days and nights. Here’s what’s in store …
This October, HOTA will become a hive of creativity as more than 290 artists from the Gold Coast, across Australia and around the world descend on the precinct. Across 11 days, expect everything from world premieres and Queensland exclusives to large-scale installations, intimate theatre, free live music and unexpected moments of wonder around every corner. Whether you’ve got an hour to spare or a whole day to lose, BLEACH has a knack for rewarding curiosity.
If there are two experiences you absolutely shouldn’t miss, they’re THAW and BEACON. Created by acclaimed physical theatre company Legs On The Wall, THAW is the kind of work that leaves a lasting impression. Performed atop a colossal block of ice that’s suspended in the air, dancers balance, leap and move across the slowly melting stage as it transforms beneath them, creating a breathtaking reflection on climate, fragility and time. The monumental work opens the festival with a sunrise performance at Surfers Paradise before returning for dramatic performances above HOTA Lake.
Just as impossible to ignore is BEACON, a vibrant large-scale installation by internationally acclaimed British artist Morag Myerscough, whose joyful public artworks have appeared everywhere from Coachella to the Paris Olympics. Created in collaboration with Gold Coast community arts organisation Everybody NOW! and hundreds of local participants, BEACON will transform the HOTA Lake Precinct into the beating heart of the festival – a bold explosion of colour, pattern and poetry that shifts from striking daytime landmark to glowing gathering place after dark.
Kicking things off in spectacular style is the festival’s Opening Night celebration, which will see the HOTA Lake Precinct come alive with a vibrant showcase of music, art and community. Expect a Welcome to Country from Kombumerri artist Lann Levinge, the 100-plus voice BEACON Festival Choir performing a specially commissioned work by bestselling author Holly Ringland, and an energetic live set from Gold Coast electro-pop duo Super Massive. If you’re only making one night of the festival, we’d make it this one.
From there, the festival dives headfirst into an eclectic program of contemporary performance. Dance takes centre stage with The Butterfly Who Flew Into the Rave, from New Zealand choreographer Oli Matheson, transporting audiences into Berlin’s legendary club scene by condensing three days at Berghain into one adrenaline-fuelled hour. Afterwards, the HOTA Basement transforms into Club Peroxide, a free late-night club experience that keeps the energy flowing over the opening weekend.
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Beyond the headline acts, there’s plenty to stumble across. Harrison Ritchie-Jones’ Cuddle transforms the Black Box Theatre into a wrestling ring for an inventive collision of dance, martial arts and technology, while Gold Coast First Nations dance company Karul presents Kuramanunya, a powerful solo performance honouring ancestral strength and legacy.
The HOTA precinct itself becomes part of the experience, with Better Days Studio Group’s Kaleidoscope Skies taking over the Gallery’s Level 5 viewing platform, Melissa Gilbert’s playful Hyper Temples filling the foyer and Japanese sound artist ASUNA’s hypnotic 100 Keyboards turning a sea of toy keyboards into an immersive soundscape.
Outside, interactive light installation VOICES invites audiences to create a chorus of light and sound, while roaming circus, First Nations storytelling and gravity-defying acrobatics – including Gravity and Other Myths’ acclaimed A Simple Space – bring the parklands to life.
Music, as always, is woven throughout the program, with free lakeside performances from Tijuana Cartel, Blind Corners, Laurel Hill, Ella Fence, Karl S Williams and Super Massive, alongside sunset sets from the BLEACH Festival Choir. Elsewhere, White Rabbit Theatre premieres Awake, while Queer PowerPoint promises an evening of brilliantly bad presentations and big laughs.
Subscribe for updatesExperience Gold Coast Head of Arts and Culture John Kotzas AM says this year’s program celebrates 15 years of artistic ambition on the Gold Coast.
“BLEACH Festival has championed the Gold Coast’s creative identity, growing from a bold local initiative into one of Australia’s leading contemporary arts festivals,” he says. “This year’s program honours that legacy while embracing an exciting new chapter inviting audiences to experience contemporary arts in unexpected ways through an inspiring celebration of art, music, performance and place.”
Artistic Director Felix Preval says this year’s program is about experiencing the Gold Coast through fresh eyes.
“From afternoon adventures to midnight celebrations, we’re inviting audiences to explore, connect and experience art through the eyes of some of the most exciting creative voices from Australia and beyond,” he says.
The festival will culminate with High Tide, a free closing-night celebration that’s shaping up to be every bit as spectacular as the opening. Expect live music, jet pack performers soaring above HOTA Lake, 100 giant illuminated jellyfish puppets drifting across the parklands and a family-friendly rave under the stars – a fitting finale to 11 days of creativity, connection and joyful chaos.
Whether you’re planning your visit around one headline event or simply turning up to see where the day takes you, that’s the magic of BLEACH Festival. Around every corner is another performance, installation or unexpected moment waiting to be discovered.
BLEACH Festival runs from Thursday October 1 to Sunday October 11. Tickets for headline events are on sale now, with a huge program of free experiences also on offer across the festival.
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