For a festival that nearly did not happen in its first year due to the 2011 floods, in the words of Queensland Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch, “The homegrown true success story” that is Anywhere Festival is now celebrating its 10th year.
Organisers say there are a record 800 performances in nooks and crannies across Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast and Noosa. The festival is taking place between the 6 and 23 May in weird and wonderful locations. Looking for a show in a garage, on a tram or in a gym? There’s probably one near you.
So, what does Anywhere mean? Anywhere, means exactly that: Anywhere. Anywhere Festival is everything from theatre, comedy, music, circus, cabaret, dance, poetry and walking tours, through to spoken word and even a little bit of magic – but set in gyms, underground reservoirs, backyards, ferry stops, power stations, plant nurseries, golf clubs, rooftops, warehouses, cafes, trams, parks and heritage homes.
In 2021, Anywhere Festival is also online, in immersive virtual reality and real time. Anywhere Festival is about Queensland performers as much as it is our audiences. The festival came about because the best of our Brisbane performers had limited opportunities to perform in traditional spaces and were expected to pay a lot to use those spaces.
Henceforth Anywhere Festival created a festival that looks to make use of any space available. This in turn not only makes it possible for local creatives to present work wherever they want but creates more opportunities for audiences to experience performance regardless of access to traditional performance venues. Anywhere Festival is providing nearly a million dollars ($963,384 in support to 800 performance makers creating 137 mostly new productions. 78 per cent of performance makers involved state the production could not have happened without Anywhere Festival’s support.
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