The Ten Best Things to See at the Brisbane Festival 2015

What would the annual Brisbane Festival be without a visual arts celebration of the city the event calls home? And what would a showcase of all that’s great about Brisbane be without input from those who live here and know it? Decking out the shopfront of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts as well as select GOA billboards across town, I Am Brisbane hits both marks, after asking the general public to take a portrait reflective of someone they felt best epitomises Brisbane. The top 30 entries — 15 from schools, 15 in the open category — comprise an exhibition that surveys the city, its people and the many perspectives that stem from both.

If there’s one thing every Brisbane Festival attendee can count on, it’s the Spiegeltent. The location of the canvas dome has changed throughout the years, but the lineup of excellent entertainment never wavers. This year, the program includes old favourites, new discoveries and all the goodness between the two extremes. Where else will you see Megan Washington do her thing, watch Conrad Sewell before he becomes an even bigger hit, revel in Spain’s best surf rock band and celebrate the birthday of Brisbane’s preeminent community broadcaster, after all? Note: entry to the tent itself is free, but each show has varying prices, so you’d best check the Bris Fest website in advance.

If you think you’ve seen Tom Thum — aka the beatboxing virtuoso Brisbane rightfully can’t get enough of — do everything he can, well, think again. You might’ve seen the noisemaker produce the kind of sounds a human seemingly shouldn’t, but you’ve never seen him join forces with groundbreaking composer Gordon Hamilton. They’re the first two drawcards at a musical watershed event that promises to blend jazz, hip hop and an off-the-wall Rite of Spring. There’s one more element to get excited about, though, and that’s the performance of Philip Glass’s Symphony No.4 — Heroes, based the seminal David Bowie/Brian Eno album. A one-mouth band meets the Queensland Symphony Orchestra meets the Thin White Duke. Now that can only equal something awesome.

They just don’t make circus shows like they used to. When it comes to internationally acclaimed contemporary circus company Pirates of the Carabina, their latest production FLOWN, and a tale that jumps behind the scenes of circus life, however, that proves to be a good thing. Indeed, this feat of comedic theatre — and of acrobats, aerialists, musicians and stuntmen, of course — is more than just eye-popping tricks, although there’s plenty of those to wonder at. Come for the spinning, dangling and other chaos, stay for the ups and downs of the absurdity of an unparalleled physical art form.

An author, sailor, professor and two musicians walk into a concert hall. No, this isn’t the setup to an elaborate joke, but the start of a world premiere event that pays tribute to the masses of water that surrounds our island continent, as well as the myriad of life that dwells with in it. The main folks are Tim Winton, Jessica Watson, Professor Iain McCalman, Bernard Fanning and Katie Noonan, so you know they’re all serious. And the event also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Australian Marine Conservation Society with a multimedia ode that uses projections, illuminated sculptures, dazzling light and animated art, so you know it won’t be anything short of spectacular either.

We’re all used to seeing movies from the male perspective, even if we don’t know it. The enormous gender imbalance in the film industry means that that’s the status quo, and it shows few signs of changing. Thankfully, nestled within the mass of man-centric content are a few gems with a difference. Sometimes they’re made by female filmmakers. Sometimes they’re about atypical female characters. In a program called The Female Gaze, Brisbane Festival shines the spotlight on cinema that challenges the status quo when it comes to gender. Opening with the Queensland premiere of The Diary of a Teenage Girl starring Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård, and cycling through six other old and new titles — such as Cannes Film Festival 2014 camera d’Or winner Party Girl, the exploration of Albanian customs that is Sworn Virgin, and Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes’ legendary Opening Night — it’s a much-needed blast of femme-fuelled sunshine in an otherwise blokey filmscape.

Maybe you grew up listening to Jeff’s tunes. Maybe you grew up listening to your dad tell you that Tim’s were better. Either way, there’s something about the two fated generations of Buckley men that has entranced music lovers for decades, and not just because of their tragic ends. For two nights only, Brisbane Festival will pay tribute to two of the most beloved, iconic and inspirational voices in rock, as overseen by guitarist and producer Gary Lucas. Given that he was the co-writer of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ and ‘Mojo Pin’, it’s safe to say that he knows what he’s doing. Given he’ll be joined on stage by the likes of Martha Wainwright, Efterklang’s Casper Clausen, Willy Mason, Camille O’Sullivan, Steve Kilbey and Cold Specks, it’s also safe to say it’ll be something special.

There’s a reason that flexing, the rhythmic street dance style from Brooklyn that has gained traction over the past decade, is also known as bone breaking. Just one glimpse of the performer’s gliding, contortionist movements and you’ll be wondering how their limbs remain intact. At the aptly named FLEXN, however, something else will set your jaw agape. Flex pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and theatre and opera director Peter Sellars have corralled a cohort of dancers use their moves to tackle post-Ferguson social injustice. In their pausing, snapping and other energetic dance displays, a beautiful, brutal statement is made.

Welcome to Theatre Republic, the space where anything stage-based goes. Indeed, if the folks behind independent, avant-garde, experimental and just all-round out-of-the-box productions branched out and made their own nation, we can only hope it would be as great as this showcase of offbeat works from around the globe. Here, you can enjoy the take on celebrity culture that is the scathing Dead Royal, remember that you’re not dead yet at Funeral, play with the artistic experience that is Perception, and find out why Adrienne Truscott, one-half of the infamous Wau Wau Sisters, says she’s Asking For It. You can also witness the artists chat about their work at free chat sessions, listen to free music from MKO, Ayla, Cheap Fakes and more, or partake in the food and drink delights in the garden bar. If this really was a separate country, we’d want to be citizens.

When is a festival event more than just a festival event? When it is a thrumming, buzzing hub of activity. In 2015, Brisbane Festival unveils Arcadia as the free-entry space that weird and wonderful dreams are made of. They’re not calling it the Wild West meets Willy Wonka without good reason. In an adult playground that occupies a site at South Bank more than five times the size of previous years, two performance tents, four bars, ten boutique food trucks and a host of activities will take up residence. Whether indulging in sassy new show Club Swizzle, entering an edible world at Fear & Delight, marvelling at pavement art at the 3D Chalk Walk, or just hanging out in the purpose-built, two-storey Little Creatures Treehouse is your thing, there’s something here for everyone. Of course, don’t miss the Big Festival Opening on September 5 — aka the perfect sampler of Bris Fest mayhem.