BIG- LEAGUE TALENT

dance companies. Our galleries are some of the most well attended regional galleries in the country, attracting visitors from all walks of life who may not otherwise have considered it.

While footy fans swarmed into the bleachers to cheer on our boys last night, another crowd packed into the Townsville Civic Theatre to see Townsville Choral Society’s amazing production of Wicked, which has sold out for its entire two week run.

They even had to add an extra show, but the tickets for that didn’t last long either. The same thing happened when they took on Grease earlier in the year, and for pretty much every major locally produced show that hits the stage.

A spot at Theatre iNQ’s unique take on Frankenstein this year were rarer than golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and the company’s annual Shakespeare Under the Stars is just as popular ( if not more) than it was when it began more than a decade ago.

The upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is inching closer to selling out by the day.

This week, there was promising news about the future of our thriving arts community with the Townsville City Council taking the next step in securing a new concert hall for our CBD. At the moment Townsville Civic Theatre has a massive waiting list, with some shows needing to book years in advance.

We already know that we can pull the crowds with the fantastic facilities we already have – imagine what we could do with another one.

Not only will the proposed location near the new stadium be a huge leap in revitalising our city centre and bringing the arts right in the middle of the action, it also means we can attract even more productions from interstate and overseas to quench our obvious thirst for culture.