Our city must get to art of the matter
ONE of the Glitter Strip’s biggest secrets is next year’s Bleach program. This will be the 12-month anniversary celebrations of the Commonwealth Games and it cannot be a dud.
For a moment, revisit your photographs on your iPhone. Can you locate any from the Games? Yes, all that colour outside the venues, the action on the track inside.
Now look at any of the shots from Festival 2018. All of those on the musical lit-up seesaws at Surfers Paradise beach, all that white-sand only accentuating the small crowds by the stage.
Contrast these scenes to the recent Brisbane Festival. Crowds were 10-deep along the river.
The advice during the day from South Bank restaurant staff was that to secure a table for that night, book. They were right. The footpath later was as congested as the M1.
Remember Broadbeach during the Games festival program? At some restaurants there were empty tables. The promotion of the cultural program got lost with all the sports action.
All of this leads to the debate about Festival 2019, from April 17-28. Should the focus be on success of the arts or the economics?
A council insider said: “The success of the festival, it’s not because of the economic focus, it’s the arts’ focus. And I’ve seen the program and it’s great.
“If you want it to grow a festival organically you have to see the patrons of the arts loving it. You have to make sure the arts cultural integrity is there first.”
Much of the Brisbane Festival is free, you can buy food and drinks for your family from stalls at reasonable prices. The program plays out to young families.
The river festival precinct is tight, you feel the event atmosphere, all of it within walking distance of restaurants and your hotel.
On check-out time at Saturday morning, the day for Riverfire, the hotel is booked out, your room rate overnight almost doubling to $600.
By 9am regular watchers of Queensland’s biggest fireworks have planted themselves on portable chairs, opened their Esky and began a 10-hour wait, their view the pick of the spots opposite the old Treasury building.
Bleach began in 2012 as a surf culture addition to the Quiksilver Pro and cannot be expected to get as many rusted-on fans as Riverfire. But it is now grabbing national arts awards. The council is taking huge leaps into the arts world and from 2014 began developing a cultural strategy to take the city to 2023.
More than $8 million of ratepayer money was spent on fast forwarding this program before the Games for Festival 2018.
The council 2018-19 annual report reveals Bleach will get $2 million. Councillors ticked off on festival funding for the next five years.
Read council’s corporate plan. A key strategy is “we have a thriving cultural economy”.
Several switched-on councillors are working hard behind the scenes to promote our growing music industry. They are strongly invested in the arts.
But the Games if anything has taught us to engage the audience that are our restaurant owners. Wouldn’t it be great to see as many bums on café and hotel seats as the Brisbane Festival?