Overview
Saying that things are looking up at Brisbane Powerhouse in 2023 isn't a comment about the arts venue's history. Rather, it's recognition that both peering and climbing upwards have become new fixtures of the New Farm site in a big way this year. First arrived Vertigo, Australia's debut vertical dining experience that gets you eating while hanging off the top of the historic building. Now Dendy Powerhouse has added Brisbane's first-ever permanent outdoor cinema to the precinct.
In most parts of Australia, watching a film beneath the evening sky with stars surrounding the big screen is a spring and summer activity. In the River City, it has been too — until now. First announced in mid-2022, Dendy Powerhouse isn't just sticking around. More than that, it's making the most of Brissie's usually warm weather (and hardly cold climes in winter) to screen flicks with the heavens as a backdrop all year round.
After confirming its details back in October, the outdoor cinema's projectors started whirring in mid-November, seeing Dendy add a third Brisbane site to its current footprint alongside Portside and Coorparoo. (RIP Dendy George Street, which then became Tribal Theatre and is now sadly no longer a cinema.)
Screening on Thursday–Sunday evenings every week of the year, Dendy Powerhouse features the same mix of programming that graces the cinema chain's other locations in Queensland and across Australia. Think: arthouse and mainstream fare alike, and for all ages, with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Five Nights at Freddy's and the remastered version of Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense among the titles getting a-flickering in the near future.
Dendy Powerhouse has popped its screen on top of 40-foot shopping containers. For the best sound experience — and so that you're not competing against the sounds of nature, New Farm and Brisbane Powerhouse — patrons use wireless headphones to listen in As for the seating, you recline on outdoor loungers, with 350 of them set up and each featuring cushions for extra comfort.
Food-wise, tucking into the usual cinema snacks — including popcorn and choc tops — is on the menu, as is enjoying cheese boxes, wine and beer. Ordering has been made easy, using QR codes for to-your-seat delivery.
Catching a movie outside at Brisbane Powerhouse should sound familiar. For years, the New Farm venue played host to Moonlight Cinema, with an outdoor big screen set up outside the site's Stores Building each summer. That annual event has since shifted to Roma Street Parklands.
Powerhouse had promised a new outdoor cinema, complete with a major exhibitor running the operations, back when it also announced Night Feast, which has run in both March and October this year, and will keep popping up twice a year — and similarly revealed the Pleasuredome, a new tent-style riverside events space on the Powerhouse's Performance Lawn that arrived in 2022.
Find Dendy Powerhouse Outdoor Cinema at 119 Lamington St, New Farm — head to the Dendy website for bookings and more information.