New Brisbane

Seems like Festivals are never ending. With the highly disappointing Italian Festival leaving a sour taste in everyone’s mouth, I started wondering why I even bother with festivals. I have been reading about the Brisbane Festival for some time, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t find anything in their program list that makes me want to even think about going to the festival. I don’t give up so easily though,the amount of organization (and money) that has gone into the festival would suggest that SOMETHING should be good and worth seeing.

The Brisbane Festival
14th - 30th July 2006
http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au
Location : Everywhere from the Powerhouse to Southbank and the City.

I appreciate all the cultural aspects of the festival line up but I don’t understand how the organizers can completely and utterly forget the 20-25 year old bracket who don’t generally go and see plays, don’t enjoy listening to Mikhail Gorbachev and Peter Beatie talk about ethical and sustainable management of natural resources and its potential for enhancing world peace. Not that I am discouraging plays or listening to a former USSR leader, but lets be serious here, this is a Nightlife guide website - I don’t think the majority of you spend your Sundays at the powerhouse. Nevertheless, the organizers are keen to tell you that you will love it!:

Brisbane Festival 2006 launched its exciting program on Friday 28 April 2006 and promising something for everyone who lives in and loves our great city!

Apart from the odd grammar, they are promising a lot. I have gone through their entire program list and not one single event or program even raised an eyebrow. Okay so I would be keen to see the Spiegel Tent which is going to be at King George square and the centre of the festival itself.

This magnificent Spiegeltent is adorned with more than one thousand mirrors, lead glass and velvet while the parquet floor, intimate booths and wonderful atmosphere add to this memorable experience.

But really? The Festival runs for more than 2 weeks! What’s going on? Where is my “Showcase of Brisbane’s nightlife” tent ha? Seems like its more a “family only” festival to me. God knows how much Tax Payer money has gone into this festival. Anyway, since I worked myself up about how annoying it is to be ignored as an age group, I was really keen to find out if the festival actually has anything worthwhile for young people. How keen? Keen enough to send an email to the organizers trying to get an answer.

I waited, and waited, and waited some more, but no one wrote back? Maybe my question was too hard. What did I ask? I wrote and firstly explained who we are, what we do etc etc and then asked Gabe, the PR contact for the festival to answer the following question:

What is on offer for young people during the festival (highlights)?

Not so hard I thought? Surely, there is something worthwhile that they can tell me about? Doesn’t seem like it! Thanks Gabe! I’ll await your reply and update this post accordingly. However from what I can gather, the Brisbane Festival is going to suck.