Brisbane Festival 2025 concludes, capping off Louise Bezzina’s seven-year tenure as Artistic Director

This year, we celebrated Brisbane over 23 days, with 100+ events, international superstars, local legends, glowing reviews, and records broken. The 2025 Festival capped off Louise Bezzina’s seven-year tenure as Artistic Director. Her vision for the Brisbane Festival — ‘be bold, be brave, be Brisbane’ — was felt across the city through groundbreaking arts, free community events, and larger-than-life installations.

The unmissable centrepiece of this year’s festival was ANZ's Walk This Way by Craig & Karl. Hundreds of thousands of people were able to experience this incredible installation across three bridges adorned with vibrantly coloured inflatable sculptures and flags. The public art was so popular that in a poll posted by Lady Brisbane, 93% said they would like the installation to become permanent.

Set within a cathedral of towering whale bones that rose from a barge on the river, Baleen Moondjan was a powerful celebration of First Nations storytelling, playing to sold-out audiences seated in the specially built grandstand on The Landing at Queen’s Wharf.

Free events and outdoor experiences broke attendance records: Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust, the ultimate surround sound-and-light show, packed the riverbanks with over half a million people, and delivered Channel Nine their highest-ever ratings for the event with a record 398,000 people tuning in to watch their coverage; Skylore: Nieergoo – Spirit of the Whale painted Brisbane's night sky with hundreds of drones and attracted some 100,000 spectators; while Afterglow filled the City Botanic Gardens with fire sculptures and candlelit artworks.

Two glittering highlights defined the year: the Australian exclusive of Benjamin Millepied’s Gems, which dazzled audiences at QPAC, and GATSBY at The Green Light, which breathed new life into the refurbished Twelfth Night Theatre. Together, these landmark works set the tone for a program of remarkable breadth — from the juggernaut community celebration of Moorooka Block Party at Peggs Park, to Brisbane Powerhouse, which pulsed with the electrifying energy of Elements of Freestyle, the world premiere of Bad Nature, and Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett. The Thomas Dixon Centre hosted the powerful meditation of The Chronicles, while The Tivoli was transformed into an intimate, in-the-round experience that brought audiences closer to the music than ever before.

Under the leadership of Louise Bezzina, Brisbane Festival has stood as a beacon for creativity, community connection, and cultural risk-taking. As the curtain falls on Bezzina’s tenure, the Festival leaves a legacy of ambitious, city-wide programming that has firmly positioned Brisbane as an emerging destination on the global arts map.

The 2025 Festival may be over, but there is so much to look forward to! Australia’s Largest International Arts Festival returns 4–26 Sep 2026.