Brisbane Festival has unveiled its 2026 program, the first from new Artistic Director Ebony Bott, with dance, physical theatre, circus and large-scale community performance sitting prominently within the city-wide event.
Running from 4 to 26 September, the 2026 festival will be presented under the banner Switch On, Light Up, Come Alive, with more than 700 performances and over 2,000 artists and arts workers involved across theatres, parks, riverbanks and the Festival Village at South Bank.
Bott said the program was “tuned to the frequency of this city”, shaped by Brisbane’s energy, outdoor life and sense of momentum. The 2026 program includes major Australian commissions, international productions, free events, family programming, music, theatre, installations and a dedicated early morning program that stretches the festival from first light to late night.
Among the dance and movement highlights is ESCAPE by Los Angeles company DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion. The large-scale work combines dance, acrobatics, stunt work and circus arts, with performers moving across architectural structures in a high-energy production set to a soundtrack spanning pop, EDM and rock.
Gold Coast company The Farm will present No One Gets Out of Here Alive, a darkly comic and visceral work drawing on opera, ballet, dance, voice and music. The production confronts mortality and the smaller endings that shape a life, bringing together The Farm’s distinctive physical performance language with a broad theatrical palette.
The festival will also include Shel We, a dance work by acclaimed Aotearoa choreographer Tupua Tigafua. Inspired by Shel Silverstein, and described as a playful tribute to family and the ties that bind, the work forms part of the festival’s New Zealand program, reflecting Brisbane Festival’s connection with Aotearoa and Pasifika communities.
Disability-led dance-theatre will also be represented through Bleachers by Sprung Dance Theatre, a collective of d/Deaf and disabled artists from Bundjalung Country. Built around a custom bleacher set, the work explores loneliness, belonging and the human need to be part of something.
The Australian premiere of Fijian Flying Circus will bring internationally renowned Fijian dance tribe VOU to South Bank’s Piazza. The family production follows young Loma and her sidekick Tui through a world of forest spirits, giants and elemental forces, combining aerial acrobatics, stunts, storytelling and Fijian performance culture.
Community dance will also have a strong presence. The Common People Dance Eisteddfod returns, bringing together seven southeast Queensland teams in Brisbane’s popular suburban dance battle. The Alexander Ball, curated by Ella Ganza, will also reignite Brisbane’s Ballroom scene, with walkers from across Australia and overseas.
At the Festival Village, South Bank, audiences will find a rolling program of free and ticketed events, including dance workshops with the ABC’s Dance with Tom and Queensland Ballet. Global morning dance and wellness event DAYBREAKER will also come to the Village, combining DJ sets, yoga, movement and communal dance at daybreak.
The Village will also host Indigenous-led contemporary circus work Living Sculptures: How the Birds Got Their Colours, alongside workshops, talks, live music and the interactive installation Giant Sing Along by Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours.
The festival’s opening weekend will feature the return of Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust on Saturday 5 September, while the nightly Bright Nights by ANZ will transform the Brisbane River with floating fountains, water screens, lasers and water jets set to a soundtrack by The Veronicas. Each performance will begin with a Welcome to Country and placemaking story by Traditional Owner Yuggera and Turrbal man Shannon Ruska.
Other major program highlights include the world premiere of Suzie Miller’s Strong is the New Pretty, the story of how the AFLW was born; Luke Murphy’s Scorched Earth, fresh from its US premiere at New York’s St. Ann’s Warehouse; Wakka Wakka’s puppetry work Dead as Dodo; and the return of the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent.