Brisbane Ice Cream Festival

Overview

With the sun usually shining and frozen, creamy treats available on almost every corner, it's never a bad time to be an ice cream lover in Brisbane. This March, however, dedicated fiends will find a concentrated dose waiting, thanks to the city's first day-long, dedicated ice cream extravaganza: the Brisbane Ice Cream Festival.

On March 11, the festival will bring together more iced confections than you've probably ever seen in one spot. And, it has found the perfect location for such sweet, sweet shenanigans. When you're about to unleash an entire city's worth of ice cream upon the eager masses, you head to a place with a history of doing just that — the old Peters Ice Cream Factory in West End.

Whatever kind of ice cream or gelato takes your fancy, you can bet that you'll find it here. That means coffee-flavoured popsicles from Queen of Pops, ice cream sandwiches courtesy of Boss Bites, fruity icy poles from Frozen Sunshine, and an ice cream burger made exclusively for the event by the Red Hook gang. Because Brisbanites like doughnuts just as much as they like ice cream, Minus 32 will be on hand to serve a fantasy-level combo of the two. And, while their very own store mightn't be up and running just yet (the current ETA is April), it wouldn't be an ice cream event without Gelato Messina stopping by — their menu is to be revealed.

The Doughnut Bar's scrolled deliciousness, Cowch's decadent desserts, IcePhile's deep-fried morsels and J'adore Les Crepes bon batches of batter will be on the menu too, alongside offerings from Ice Cream Curls, Ruby the Little Red Ice Cream Van, Hett's n Ice Shaved Ice and more. There'll also be some savoury to go with all that sweetness — here's the lineup of vendors:

• Gelato Messina
• Ice Cream Curls
• Queen of Pops
• Minus 32
• Frozen Sunshine
• Boss Bites
• Icephile
• J'adore Les Crepes
• La Macelleria
• The Doughnut Bar
• Mister Fitz
• Ruby Ice Cream
• Cowch
• CocoWhip
• Red Hook
• Hett's n Ice
• Nitrogenie
• Alfred & Constance pop-up bar
• King of Wings
• Rolls Pho Mi
• Micasa
• Two Teas

Live music and boozy frozen beverages will also be on available, because it's a festival after all. Wear something stretchy, because it's going to be an over-indulging kind of day.

It's also going to be quite the popular event, of course, with attendees required to register on the festival website to help cope with demand. There'll be three sessions throughout the day — 11am to 1pm, 1pm to 3pm, and 3pm to 5pm — with numbers capped at 1800 people for each. Registrations are free, and open at 10am on March 1.