Get ready to Stay Up Late at Brisbane Festival
This year marks Noel Staunton’s last year as artistic director of Brisbane Festival. After four years at the helm, Noel has created a wonderful beast of a festival that draws record numbers and inspires both young and old. Part of his vision for Brisbane has been to inspire a late-night culture for the city, changing the current habit of wrapping up dinner by 8:00 pm and retreating to bed.
Noel’s contribution to change has seen Argentinian dance parties kicking off at midnight and bars churning out hot eats and crisp beverages into the wee hours in past years. For 2014’s Stay Up Late program, Noel is extending a program of live music, eats and beats and circus cabaret to draw locals out into the balmy spring evenings and take advantage of all those extra hours the naturally nocturnal usually embrace.
Midnight Juggernauts is set to present a special ten-year anniversary show teamed with an audio visual project AERIALS, while local punk outfit Dune Rats brings its debut album to The Telstra Spiegeltent. Vancouver Sleep Clinic will deliver its debut EP of minimal synths and soaring vocals, and dub duo HTRK gets set to launch new album Psychic 9–5 Club, plating up the perfect opportunity to take to the dancefloor until midnight.
Circus-cabaret LIMBO will whisk audiences into stupor with a series of late-night performances, which can be paired with a spot of lying beneath the Brisbane Airport Light Garden, letting the twinkling installation cast a surreal mood over your midnight adventures. The Telstra Spiegeltent Garden Bar will also be open every night, providing free live music and plenty of edible and liquid sustenance to fuel your late-night prowess.
Brisbane Festival runs September 6–27 this year, and theatre director David Berthold will succeed Noel Staunton for the 2015–2018 seasons of Brisbane Festival.
To find out more about what’s on in Brisbane, head to our Event Guide.
