Brisbane Festival a success in a million

More than one million people have enjoyed the jam-packed 2012 Brisbane Festival, which is celebrating a record 90 plus sell-out performances and box office takings in excess of $1.2 million.

Arts Minister Ros Bates was scheduled to officially close the festival, but is at present receiving ‘hospital in the home’ care while recovering from a shoulder infection which required major surgery. Her place was taken by Education Minister John Paul Langbroek.

Ms Bates said this year’s Brisbane Festival had captured the imagination of everyone from high art lovers to young families looking to entertain their children.

“This festival had everything, from the operatic return of Lisa Gasteen in Bluebeard’s Castle, to popular culture with Julia Stone and Archie Roach. Sunsuper Riverfire will provide a spectacular finale for the thousands of people tonight (Sept 29).

“This year many of the festival’s visitors captured the great time they were having with photographs shared on social media; the Brisbane Festival’s own online gallery features more than 1200 photographs posted by festival-goers.”

Ms Bates said that of the 92 festival shows, Soap – The Show, Boundary Street, La Soiree and Jazz on Sunday were big attractions, selling out entire seasons quickly. Other shows that had sell out performances included Queensland beat box sensation Tom Thum and local Under The Radar show ?? Underground, as well as Archie Roach and Mia Dyson.

Minister for Tourism Jann Stuckey said a nightly highlight of this year’s festival was the free, family-friendly choreographed lighting spectacular.

“Brisbane continues to emerge as an arts and cultural mecca, with high-calibre events like the Santos GLNG City of Lights providing another reason for visitors to include Queensland on their travel itinerary,” said Ms Stuckey.

“Last year, the inaugural Santos City of Lights generated 5000 visitor nights, with initial figures for the 2012 event showing more than 200 000 in attendance, which is on track to surpass the 2011 visitor nights. The Newman Government is proud to support events like this through Events Queensland as part of our determined strategy to showcase Queensland as Australia’s number one tourist destination.”

 Ms Bates said the Newman Government invests $5.29 million in the festival annually through Arts Queensland, along with the funding from Events Queensland for the Santos GLNG City of Lights.

[ENDS] 29 September 2012

Media Contact: Ken Vernon 0431 027 017