From Concerts to Cricket: Here Are the Unmissable Events in Brisbane This Summer

Catching the Brisbane Heat in action is the perfect match for a warm summer evening, with Sunday, December 22 welcoming the Adelaide Strikers to town.  With the Heat achieving the ultimate glory in last season’s Big Bash League, securing a win over the Strikers will put them in good stead for another championship victory. You and your pals can give them a helpful hand from the stands alongside thousands of other passionate supporters.

Discovering Ancient Egypt is running until Sunday, August 17, 2025, this showcase is filled with highlights, especially if you’re interested in how ancient Egyptians approached the afterlife. Among its 200-plus items, five sarcophaguses feature, alongside painted funerary coffins and papyrus sheets from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. During its stint in Brisbane, complete with carved statues from the Saqqara necropolis as well, Queensland Museum expects the exhibition to be a hit — because diving into Egypt’s history always is for the institution.

NYE got you feeling a little weary? The New Year’s Bash delivers the ideal tonic that not only offers boundless excitement but keeps your holiday party going. On Wednesday, January 1, the Brisbane Heat face off against the Melbourne Stars in a thrilling encounter featuring some of the world’s best T20 batters and bowlers. UK superstar Example will be performing at the game with his iconic dance tracks that’ll lift the mood even if your team if down and out. Set the tone for 2025 in the best way possible from the stands, with awesome live music, fireworks displays and top-notch sporting action wowing the crowd. Enter the game-day charity raffle to contribute to the KFC Youth Foundation’s fundraising efforts or donate directly through Ticketek when your purchase your ticket for more good feels and bonus karma to start the New Year. 

When Christmas rolls around each year, Brisbane gets a little bit brighter. One of the most-dazzling spots in town is Roma Street Parkland. The reason: The Enchanted Garden, which has been popping up annually for festive runs for a few years now, and has returned for 2024. Get ready to get lit: this luminous show lets you see one of the city’s favourite green spaces in a completely new light, and is switching on its seasonal brightness for a month leading up to the jolliest day of all again — complete with food trucks and a bar so that you can make a night of it. This year’s dates for your diary: Friday, November 22–Saturday, December 21, 2024.

Maybe you love swimming laps. Perhaps a leisurely soak is your favourite way to cool down. Or, nothing could say summer to you quite like hanging out poolside. Whichever category fits, you might’ve lived the pool life at one of Brisbane’s City Council’s public venues, especially if you don’t have your own backyard spot to splash in. This summer, for $2 a pop, you really should. From Sunday, December 1, 2024–Friday, February 28, 2025, Brisbane’s City Council is slashing the entry fee to all 22 of its public pools around the River City — as it also did last year. For the entire three months of summer, having a splash will only cost you $2.

Beer halls aren’t just for drinking brews, at least where Felons Brewing Co is involved. The Howard Smith Wharves mainstay regularly puts its barrel hall to a range of other uses, whether by hosting movies or markets — or the Seasonal Fruit music festival. On Friday, January 24, 2025 from 6pm, the latter is on the agenda for its latest summer edition, with this riverside fest curated by Jet Black Cat Music. Here’s one way to embrace the warm weather: with a lineup of acts taking to the stage over one evening. On the bill this time: CC: DISCO!, Harvey Sutherland doing a DJ set, Don Glori, Felivand and Karate Boogaloo.

One king. Six wives. Centuries of folks being fascinated with the regal story. Throw in pop songs as well, and that’s the smash-hit SIX the Musical formula, as Australian audiences discovered in 2021, 2022 and 2023 — and can again in Brisbane from Thursday, January 2, 2025 at QPAC Playhouse. SIX the Musical is presented as a pop concert, in fact, with the Catherines, Annes and Jane all taking to the microphone to tell their stories. Each woman’s aim: to stake their claim as the wife who suffered the most at the king’s hands, and to become the group’s lead singer as a result.

So, you’re in Brisbane. You love music festivals. You’ve been watching the winter avalanche of lineup drops for this coming summer. Been eyeing off the Beyond The Valley bill? Lost Paradise‘s roster of talents? Can’t make it to Victoria or New South Wales? That’s not the only reason to get excited about Wildlands’ return for 2024–25 — but it’s one of them. This dance music, electronic and hip hop fest is known to share its big names with fellow festivals around Australia — and its latest round of events, which will kick off at Brisbane Showgrounds to celebrate New Year’s Eve 2024, is no different. Accordingly, Fisher, Ice Spice, Chase & Status, Marlon Hoffstadt, Tinashe and Royel Otis are among the acts that now have dates locked in with Queensland.

More than 110 years have passed since the RMS Titanic’s ill-fated voyage, but the ship’s tragic sinking hasn’t ever become a mere historical footnote. Displaying at Uptown in Brisbane, Titanic. The Human Story is an event that’ll step through the tale of the vessel that set out from Southhampton in April 1912, then struck an iceberg en route to New York. The exhibition features around 200 personal artefacts from them, including never-before-seen pieces that span handwritten letters, belongings, keepsakes and photographs. As attendees step through their experiences, an audio guide will also relay the tales of those onboard the liner during its one and only journey — and some of the boat’s interiors will feature via life-sized recreations as well.