Brisbane streets to come alive as Street Serenades return

Live music performances, dance groups and arts workshops will be lighting-up Brisbane streets again this year through the highly-anticipated Street Serenades program as part of Brisbane Festival.

Minister for Communities and the Arts Leeanne Enoch said the Palaszczuk Government was providing a $350,000 funding boost to help bring the Street Serenades: At Our Place back a second year, following its success in 2020.

“Last year, Brisbane Festival was reinvented because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Street Serenades program was launched.

“It took art to the people, filling streets, paths, cul-de-sacs and businesses with live performances. Almost 400 local artists and arts workers performed across Brisbane suburbs.

“Further to this success, across the entire Brisbane Festival, 28 new works were commissioned by Queensland artists and companies, and there were 1.9 million attendances across the program.

“It was an amazing success, and this year the Palaszczuk Government is providing an additional $350,000 in funding to Brisbane Festival to deliver the new initiative, Street Serenades: At Our Place.

“The new program will feature a series of 64 creative arts workshops in collaboration with eight neighbourhood and community centres across Brisbane.

“The Palaszczuk Government is a major supporter of Brisbane Festival as part of our commitment to support arts and culture, provide employment for Queensland artists and arts workers and drive important economic, social and health outcomes.

“The arts are key to delivering our plan for economic recovery, each year contributing $8.5 billion to the state’s economy and supporting more than 92,000 jobs for Queenslanders.

“The arts and culture sector has felt the impacts of the pandemic, and that is why events such as Street Serenades and Brisbane Festival are so important for the industry, and for Queensland.”

It is anticipated that Street Serenades: At Our Place will engage more than 4,000 community members through workshops and performances and employ hundreds of artists who will help connect communities through art.

“Artists will develop and deliver uplifting, unexpected and inclusive experiences, including creative arts workshops, pop-up Street Serenades performances, and social dance clubs that will run over a month,” Minister Enoch said.

“Street Serenades: At Our Place is also a great example of how events like this are helping to deliver our Government’s 10-year arts roadmap Creative Together 2020-2030, which is for a state renewed and transformed by arts, culture and creativity.

Brisbane Festival Artistic Director Louise Bezzina said this year’s Street Serenades program would include a mix of cul-de-sac concerts, street parties, park performances, and entertainment in community spaces such as open-air car parks, sporting fields and public piazzas.

“Street Serenades brings its distinctive travelling stages and pop-up performance venues to fill Brisbane suburbs with music, joy and – at long last – dancing in the streets,” Ms Bezzina said.

“Brisbane fell in love with Street Serenades as a highlight of the Festival in 2020 and I am thrilled to announce it will return in 2021, becoming an iconic part of the Brisbane Festival program.

“I would love to personally invite Brisbane to get out and explore this city, to be delighted by its wealth of homegrown talent and surprised by the hidden geographical gems in the largest city council in Australia,” she said.

For more information visit: https://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/

ENDS

Media Contact: 0437 859 987