Brisbane Festival 2026 opens this week, and new Artistic Director Ebony Bott’s debut program is the most ambitious yet. Running 4–26 September under the banner Switch On, Light Up, Come Alive, this year’s festival stretches from sunrise yoga to riverside fireworks, with 700 performances and more than 2,000 artists across the city.
Brisbane Festival 2026 Opens with Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust
The festival’s opening weekend belongs to Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust on Saturday 5 September. A RAAF flyover precedes a fireworks display launched from bridges, barges and rooftops along the Brisbane River, marking the traditional big bang start to the month-long program.
Festival Village, South Bank: The Heart of Brisbane Festival 2026
If there’s one place to build a Brisbane Festival 2026 itinerary around, it’s Festival Village, South Bank. This riverside takeover of the South Bank Cultural Forecourt is where the festival lives day and night, free and ticketed, for the full three weeks. Highlights include:
- Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent — home each evening to West End hit The Choir of Man, plus This Show is a Joke and the genre-mashing Are You Lonesome Tonight
- Bright Nights by ANZ — a nightly river spectacular of floating fountains, waterscreens and lasers reaching 80 metres, scored by The Veronicas and opened with a Welcome to Country from Yuggera and Turrbal man Shannon Ruska, running three times nightly
- Giant Sing Along — an interactive mass-choir installation from Montreal studio Daily tous les jours
- DAYBREAKER — alcohol-free morning DJ sets, yoga and movement to start the day
- Village Green — dance workshops with Queensland Ballet, morning mantras with Camerata, circus workshops and a rolling program of talks and live music
Brisbane Festival 2026 Highlights: Theatre, Circus and World Premieres
Beyond the Village, the Brisbane Festival 2026 program spans world premieres, international exclusives and Brisbane favourites:
- Strong is the New Pretty — Suzie Miller’s world premiere telling the untold story of the AFLW’s founding, at QPAC
- ESCAPE — Los Angeles company DIAVOLO’s architecture-meets-acrobatics production
- Scorched Earth — Luke Murphy’s Attic Projects, fresh from New York’s St. Ann’s Warehouse
- Dead as Dodo — New York puppetry company Wakka Wakka’s underworld musical
- Fijian Flying Circus — VOU’s Australian premiere under the big top at South Bank’s Piazza
- Make, Believe, Magic — an exclusive Jim Henson Company exhibition at GOMA
- Mama Does Derby — Virginia Gay’s roller derby theatre-and-punk hybrid at Brisbane Powerhouse
- Night at the Parkland — outdoor concerts at Roma Street Parkland with Aloe Blacc, Human Nature, Icehouse, PNAU and more
- RocKwiz — a live Brisbane music tribute hosted by Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis
New Zealand Connections
Four Aotearoa works feature in 2026: Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking, Tupua Tigafua’s dance piece Shel We, the staged reading Betsy Balloon and the Very Great Terrible Flood, and Binge Culture’s immersive horror-comedy Werewolf.
For and By the Community
Free community programming includes Brisbane Serenades across local parks, the five-year milestone Moorooka Block Party, the Quandamooka Festival on Minjerribah, the Common People Dance Eisteddfod, and the Alexander Ball, curated by Ella Ganza.
Brisbane Festival 2026 Dates and Tickets
Brisbane Festival runs 4–26 September 2026. Tickets are on sale at brisbanefestival.com.au
