Overview
When a city is home to sunny weather basically all year round, it's also home to plenty of places to enjoy a scoop or several of tastebud-cooling desserts. In 2017, however, Brisbane went one better. We screamed for ice cream at our own dedicated ice cream festival — and then we screamed again in 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Those frozen sweet treat-induced exclamations are set to continue in 2022, too, with the Brisbane Ice Cream Festival returning to West End's West Village precinct — home to the old Peter's Ice Cream factory — for a huge fifth event. Perhaps this sweet treat-loving city's most popular occasion, as past ticket registrations have shown, BICF is hanging around for longer this time as well.
Brisbanites will be able to gorge on frosty, creamy food from Thursday, March 17–Sunday, April 3, with much of the dessert-themed fun concentrated on the weekends of Friday, March 18–Saturday, March 19, Saturday, March 26–Sunday, March 27 and Saturday, April 2–Sunday, April 3. So, like choosing how high to pile ice cream on top of a cone or into a bowl, you have options, including tucking into dessert degustations and hitting up pop-up vendors.
Across its first weekend, Brisbane Ice Cream Festival will host indulgent multi-course dinners at 6pm — all filled with dessert. Chefs Phillip Johnson (E'cco Bistro and Philip Johnson Catering), William Wallace (William Wallace Group) and Matt Golinski (Ready Steady Cook and Peppers Noosa Resort) will do the honours in the kitchen, and attendees will be treated to an experimental lineup of twists on sweet-treat favourites for $129 a ticket. Some dishes will even be savoury, but they'll all tie into the dessert theme.
On its second weekend, the fest will set up crafty activities for kids for $10 a pop, while the event's third weekend will showcase a heap of different ice cream joints — West Village's own newcomer Anita Gelato included, obviously, but also the likes of Ungermann Brothers and Roll It Ice Cream Co as well.
And, if you head along for an ice cream fix during the week, you can expect a host of different specials right through the entire fest.
Whichever part of the fest you attend — and how many times you go along — arrive hungry, obviously.
Brisbane Ice Cream Festival takes place from Thursday, March 17–Sunday, April 3 at West Village, 97 Boundary Road, West End. For more information or to buy tickets, head to the festival website.
Top image: Anita Gelato, Liquidity.