Brisbane Festival's Breathable Gin and Tonic Room Isn't Everyone's Cup of Tea

If there’s one thing we’ve come to know about ourselves it’s that we love a good gimmick. Whether it’s a nautically-themed gastropub or an entire cafe built on Pantone colour palettes, we can’t get enough of the weird and the wonderful. And so it’s no surprise that we’re squee-ing in anticipation of the Brisbane Festival's bizarre food-meets-theatre offering Fear and Delight.

Created by Strut & Fret, the theatrical culinary event has been making waves in the news for the last few days, mainly because of the inclusion of food artists Bompas and Parr's so-called G&T Cloud Experience, first opened in London last month. This, in layman’s terms, means 'a room filled with a cloud of humidified gin and tonic which is consumed through the skin and eyeballs'. Yep, breathable booze. As expected, some are delighted with the prospect and others are fearful, while some people are just downright ready to party.

Health experts have been lining up around the block to offer their opinion on the phenomenon. Professor Jake Najman, of the University of Queensland’s Drug Research and Education Centre, told the Guardian that rapidly absorbing a carcinogenic chemical is a big no-no. To be fair to the Professor, downing six Jaeger bombs and a Big Mac every Saturday night could also be considered near to carcinogenic but that certainly doesn’t stop us. However Najman also admits that not too much is known about the effects of inhaling alcohol, so bottoms up! Or bottoms out or however it is you toast in this new landscape of possibility.

Celebrated internationally for such foodie happenings as an anatomical whisky tasting, a DNA-matching cocktail bar and a huge pagan feast at this year's Dark Mofo, Bompas and Parr are no strangers to controversy. Parr told Bloomberg that humidified drinking is "a new way of experiencing drink, and it’s social because it’s an immersive shared environment. You all have the same flavour sensation. Alcohol tastes better, with more nuances. You can detect more subtle flavours when it is humidified". What a time to be alive! But don’t worry about overdoing it on the alcohol-infused vapour, as Fear and Delight director Scott Maidment says that patrons would have to stand in the cloud for 40 minutes to absorb the equivalent of a large gin and tonic. So even if you get naked and do laps of the room, you won’t end up too drunk to watch the show afterwards. It really adds a whole new layer of meaning to #vapelife.

Brisbane Festival’s Fear and Delight runs 4-25 September at South Bank Culture Forecourt. Grab tickets here.