Brisbane Festival Wraps Up September 26: Final Weekend Events You Can Still Catch
Riverfire feels like a lifetime ago now, but Brisbane Festival is still going, and it wraps up this Saturday, September 26. If you’ve been meaning to get down to South Bank all month and haven’t made it yet, this is your window, and there’s more happening in these last few days than you might expect.
The Festival Village at South Bank has been the heart of the whole thing since it opened, and it’s still buzzing every night this week. The Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, that ornate mirrored tent that’s become a fixture of the Village Green, is running its last shows before it packs up. The Choir of Man is still on, and if you haven’t caught it yet, it’s the kind of show that works even if you wander in not knowing what to expect: part pub singalong, part genuinely moving theatre. The Listies bring their usual chaos with This Show is a Joke, which is aimed at families but honestly gets just as many laughs out of the adults in the room. And Are You Lonesome Tonight, the Elvis-themed cabaret, has been one of the quieter sellouts of the festival, so if you want a seat, don’t wait until Friday to book.
Thursday through Saturday is really when things ramp up for the close. ESCAPE, Architecture in Motion, makes its Brisbane debut as part of this final stretch, running from the 23rd through the 27th. It’s circus and experimental dance mashed together in a way that’s hard to describe until you’ve seen bodies moving through a set that looks more like a building site than a stage. It’s playing at one of the smaller Village venues, so go early if you want a good spot to stand or sit.
If you’re after something with more community flavor and less ticket price, the Moorooka Block Party at Peggs Park is worth the trip out. It’s a bit further from the CBD than most festival events, out past Ipswich Road, but that’s part of the appeal. It pulls a local crowd rather than a city-wide one, with food stalls from the neighborhood’s Vietnamese and Pacific Islander communities that you won’t find set up at South Bank. Parking around Peggs Park fills up fast once the music starts, so if you’re driving, the streets just off Cliveden Avenue tend to have space even when the closer spots are gone.
The Quandamooka Festival has also been running as part of the broader program, celebrating the living culture of the Quandamooka people of Minjerribah, and its final events land in this same closing week. The Common People Dance Eisteddfod and Community Choir: The Musical are both worth catching if you want something that feels distinctly Brisbane rather than imported from a festival circuit. The Alexander Ball, one of the more visually striking nights on the calendar, also falls in these last days, and it draws a crowd that dresses up properly for it, so don’t turn up in thongs and expect to blend in.
For families, Pasifika Made has quietly been one of the better daytime options all festival, with live performances and stalls from Brisbane’s Pacific Islander community. It’s free to wander through, which matters if you’re bringing kids and don’t want every hour to cost you money.
Getting to South Bank for these final nights is straightforward if you take the train into South Bank or South Brisbane station rather than driving. Both are a short walk to the Village, and given it’s the last weekend, expect the CityCat and ferry services along the river to be busier than usual too, especially Saturday evening when everyone’s trying to squeeze in one last night before it all packs down. If you do drive, the Cultural Centre car park stays open late during festival nights, but it does fill by early evening on weekends, so aim to arrive before six if parking there is the plan.
Most of the free events don’t need bookings, but the ticketed shows in the Spiegeltent and some of the Village’s smaller venues are close to selling out for these final nights, which isn’t surprising given it’s the last chance to catch them this year. If there’s one show on this list worth booking ahead rather than risking it at the door, it’s Are You Lonesome Tonight. It’s had strong word of mouth all month and the venue only holds a few hundred people a night.
Saturday the 26th itself will likely be the busiest night of the closing weekend, with the Village Green hosting a mix of the festival’s recurring acts for one last run before the stalls come down and South Bank goes back to its usual weekend crowd. If you’ve got kids or just prefer a calmer night, Thursday or Friday evening might suit better, with slightly smaller crowds and just as much on offer.
Brisbane Festival has run for three weeks this year, and it’s easy to feel like you’ve missed your chance by the time the final weekend rolls around. But there’s still a real spread of things to catch, from the big ticketed cabaret shows down to the free community stalls, and most of it clusters within a ten minute walk of the Cultural Centre precinct. Whether you’re after one last big night out or just want to wander through the Village Green with a drink in hand before it all wraps up, this weekend is the last shot to do it.
