Live shows and theatre
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is continuing to can-can into the hearts of Brisbane’s theatre-loving souls until July 27. Witness the musical mash-up extravaganza of Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film, which has taken performances to London’s West End and the shiny Broadway strip. Expect to hear all of the tunes you know and love, as well as new additions from pop-royalty Katy Perry, Sia and Beyoncé. This love story for the ages is a theatrical masterpiece that is not to be missed. Saunter over to the QPAC website to purchase your tickets – before it’s too late!

What cannot be said with words, must be expressed through other means. Through a collision of circus and culture, award-winning First Nations work Common Dissonance explores the complex hypocrisies when spirituality meets science and a lingering past collides with a globalised present. This Thursday June 22 marks the first show of many as two performers partake in physical dialogue in a pursuance for balance, community, exchange, unity and diversity. Book your tickets here.

Watch in awe as globe-trotting performer Cecilia Martin makes lemon out of lemonade in her autobiographical performance Break. This weekend, Metro Arts New Benner Theatre will host this vulnerable portrayal of life’s woes and throws as an acrobat through dance, theatre and circus, with the all-too-familiar theme of burnout sitting at the crux. As you leave the artistic bounds, expect your mind to mull with the burning question – what happens when our dreams reach breaking point? Book your tickets here to find out. 

This weekend is your last chance to catch not one, not two, but three awe-inspiring works from Queensland Ballet. Until July 25, the company is presenting triple-bill showcase Trilogy, featuring three stand-alone short works, each conceived by a different creative voice. For the price of one ticket you will get to witness My Brilliant Career by British choreographer Cathy Marston, A Brief Nostalgia by Queensland Ballet associate choreographer Jack Lister and Rooster by Christopher Bruce – all of which blend perspectives and inspirations for a celebration of ballet at its diverse best, offering up something for both ballet connoisseurs and neophytes to appreciate. Head to the Queensland Ballet website to snag your tickets.

Queensland Theatre is presenting its latest production, Tiny Beautiful Things, until July 8. Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, the play follows Cheryl – a wife, mother, daughter, writer, ex-heroin user and now, unpaid online anonymous advice columnist called Sugar. Amidst the chaos of her own life, she received calls of help from strangers via email, sending in response her unique brand of unadulterated advice. This authentic and vulnerable play reminds us – sometimes the best advice can come from an unlikely source.

All things food and drink
Whether you spread your scone with jam then cream, or cream then jam, you’re going to want a seat inside the historical bounds of Brisbane’s Treasury Hotel for The Lab’s The Height of High Tea. This weekend, choose between a bottomless flow of La Maison Du Thé French hand-crafted teas or free-flowing pours of Domaine Chandon brut rose, sparkling pinot shiraz and sparkling Chandon brut, and be met with compotes filled with high tea’s classic culprits including gourmet ribbon sandwiches, petite quiches and frittatas, traditional scones with jam and cream, and more! Pinkies up – book your sweet spot here.

PSA burger fanatics! The Triffid’s Brisbane Burger Fest is back! The lauded affair of buns, bands and beers will be shutting down Stratton Street this Saturday June 24, uniting the talents of Brooklyn Depot, Fritzenberger, Hashtag Burgers & Waffles, Remy’s, Ze Pickle and more. With a juicy bite in one, head to the bar where Stone & Wood and Heaps Normal beer will be catering to your weekend’s pour as live performances including Melaleuca, Radium Dolls, Echowave, The Dandy’s and more soundtrack the day. If that’s not enough, this year will also feature a beer-pong arena, burger-eating competitions and entertainment for the kids – every buns happy! Ready for some finger-licking fun? Head on down at 11:00 am and let the festivities begin. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased here.

Eagle Street’s Riverbar & Kitchen is turning up the heat this winter. Every Friday and Saturday night from Saturday June 24 to Sunday July 30, Nightfall & Neon will transform the bar into an adult playground as the riverside venue hosts live music and roaming entertainment from neon hula hoopers, fluro feather dancers and roller skaters from 7:00 pm. On arrival, make way to the bar and order up a glowing cocktail from the exclusive menu – our eyes are on the Electric Dream with Bombay Sapphire Gin, blue curacao, lemon, sugar and soda water – before biting into a winter warmer from Riverbar’s new-season menu. Leave your worries at the door as you sip, snack and stargaze the night away, with a banger-wielding DJ turning its tables into the night! With free entry, your winter nights have never shined so bright. Book a table here.

A weekend of bare feet and market trawling is one we can get amongst! As the month-long foodie affair from Scenic Rim’s Eat Local Month nears the end, jump at the chance to discover the glorious region and all of its spoils at the Local Produce Market Day. This Saturday June 24, fill your market bags and trolleys with fresh local produce, edibles, preserves, plants and wine as well as handcrafted wares from the region’s artisans. If you’re feeling peckish, grab a bite to eat from a host of Scenic Rim’s local chefs and vendors on site, and get a taste of the Scenic Rim with every bite. Once you’re replenished, revel in your market day finds at barefoot bowls on the green while live entertainment fills the air and samples of local produce go around – if you like what you taste, you can take some home with you! With free entry to the market, all you need to do is book your one-hour time slot for barefoot bowls here and make way towards the grassy fields of the Scenic Rim!

You may have heard the word on the street, but June is looking mighty delicious! And Dine BNE City definitely has something to do with it. Until June 30, you can dine for days from Brisbane’s most finger-licking venues as they await your arrival. Opt into Let’s Do Lunch for a satiating (yet cost effective) midday spread, or Supper Club for a hot date, special event or a treat-yourself moment. What are eats without drinks? Check out the venue offerings from Bar Safari for after-work drinks or just a night out on the town – who needs a reason? From $25 lunches to meandering wine walks, whisky nights and ten-course degustations, there is a tantalising taste for every bud, so, leave food prep in the past, and dine with Brisbane City! This Thursday June 22, Italy meets opera for an Italian Opera at Massimo, which sees you digging into an 11-course feast of freshly shucked oysters with lemon, beetroot-cured salmon with fennel sauce, veal and pork meatballs with Napoli sauce, a 500-g rib on the bone with mushroom sauce, and more. Gather the gang and book a spot to this sumptuous sitting here.

Winter chill still calls for Sunday sessions! Happening every Sunday, journey to overwater bar Will & Flow and opt into its SUNDAZE Sessions for grazing affair, which will see you enjoying a charcuterie platter for two while sipping on a warm pot of Hendrick’s Gin tea of your choice – for $85! Book a seat here and simply sit, sip and snack the evening away as sun sets –we love!

This weekend, make your way to the Brisbane Quarter for a flavoursome feast from its lustrous line-up of Dine BNE City offers. Brisbane Phoenix’s Cantonese Roasted Lunch menu features Peking duck pancakes, salt and pepper king prawns, and lobster tails with garlic butter that will leave you more than satisfied. Phat Boy’s Phat Bento offers your choice of chicken or vegetarian bento box for just $20. Both options include a curry, rice, seasonal salad, ar-jard cucumber salsa and either crispy leek cakes or house-made spring rolls. Whatever the craving – leave it up to Brisbane Quarter. Learn more about Brisbane Quarter’s Dine BNE City offers here.

Snow is forecast for Brisbane this weekend, as Veuve Clicquot In The Snow continues to grace Customs House until the end of July. Sip champagne and indulge in a menu of delectable bites as you cosy up with your pals inside one of the riverside igloos. In addition to Veuve, you can imbibe on an array of Australian and French wines, beers and cocktails, as well as eats including Moreton Bay bug brioche rolls, freshly shucked oysters, whole baked brie and mac and cheese croquettes. Head here to book your igloo!

Dine on frosty feasts and sip on spiced mugs of mulled wine as Fortitude Valley’s King Street transforms into a winter wonderland. This weekend, Apres Ski at King Street will see you cosy up to fur cushions and warm blankets as the urban precinct’s eateries serve up winter warmers including Kuhl-Cher’s steaming-hot bowl of traditional lamb ragout with gnocchi and fresh chilli, a cheesy toasted croque monsieur from King St Bakery, and a Fat Dumpling dish of comforting pork wonton noodle soup. Pull out the ol’ Uggs, they’re dying for a wear! 

Exhibitions, Arts and Culture
If you can’t get to Europe this year, Monet In Paris might be the next best thing! Monet In Paris will see you meandering through the 360-degree immersive venue, Le Grand Palais, located at Northshore Hamilton. The multi-sensory experience will have you immersed in the large-scale masterpieces of French Impressionists from Claude Monet and Camile Pissaro, to Edgar Degun and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A display of light, colour, sound and fragrance will take the wheel as art meets technology, further illuminating the Impressionist works through multi-sensory graphics and crystal-clear projections. Monet In Paris allows a glimpse into the history of the Impressionist movement amid the social and political turbulence at the time. If you’re a sucker for a French delight, head over to Le Bistro Delight located in the exhibitions ‘Artist’s Square of Montmartre’. Just say oui and purchase your tickets here. Become further immersed in the Monet experience with a delicious High Tea in Paree that will see you grazing on French delights and tea or bubbles, let your inner Monet out at Paint Like Monet or party like a Parisian at Monet by Moonlight.

The time has finally arrived – GOMA’s Two Irresistible Exhibitions, Michael Zavros and eX de Medici, opens this weekend! From June 24 to October 2, you’ll have a chance to witness a rare contemporary art experience, featuring two major retrospectives from leading Australian artists for the price of one. Presented side by side will be eX de Medici: Beautiful Wickedness and Michael Zavros: The Favourite. Be enthralled by the works of eX de Medici, in a 40-year career retrospective of the artist and tattooist – Beautiful Wickedness. The exhibition sees a showcase of more than 100 of the artist’s works, providing a window into the artist’s soul with attention paid to long-standing global issues. The Favourite surveys 25 years of painting, sculpture, photography and video by leading contemporary Queensland artist Michael Zavros, profiling his significant thematic explorations, including fashion magazines, European palaces, luxury cars, his children, Narcissus and still life, in addition to his self-portraits and reflections upon his heritage.

You’ll be hook, line and sinker for QAGOMA’s exhibition Gone Fishing, showcasing a collection of Indigenous Australian artists’ works, affirming the cultural, social and recreational activity, with the threat of Sea Country and Traditional Owners’ struggle to have the power to care for it under Native Title law, and topical issues threatening to destroy our environment, at the crux. Each of the exhibition’s installations – ‘Traps, tackle and gear’, ‘Sea rights: Politics, lore and custom’ and ‘Along the shoreline’, allow a peak into the artist’s individual community’s response to issues including rising and warming seas, contamination of waters and the destruction of cultural sights. This exhibition will be anchored down at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art until January 21 – *flips office sign to gone fishing*. You can also take a journey of self at the Queensland Art Gallery’s Looking Out, Looking In, on show until August 6. This exhibition explores the various approaches humankind takes when envisaging oneself, whether it be with a self-effacing approach or one with flamboyancy. Peruse the halls and take sight of a collection of self-portraits from an array of esteemed artists.

The Museum of Brisbane’s latest exhibition, Clay: Collected Ceramics, is a celebration of the hand-crafted endeavour, combining works from the Museum of Brisbane’s collection of ceramics, a myriad of pieces from acclaimed author, poet and traveller Kylie Johnson’s personal collection, plus works from more than 300 external makers lending their individual pieces in celebration of the art that beholds them. The works on display span across a 60-year timeline from seasoned ceramists to modern-day iconoclastic makers, with a noticeable transition of clay’s shift from functional ware of the 1970s to conceptual creations we see today. You can delve a little deeper into the processes undergone and the relationships formed between a maker and their vision, through personal ruminations of how they lost their hearts to this most elementary and seductive material. This collection of clay will be sticking around until October 22 – meaning you can visit more than once! Even better, this event is free to attend, it’s a no-brainer!

Head to the Museum of Brisbane and you will find MOB’s largest community project to date, Commune. As part of Clay: Collected Ceramics, Brisbane region’s ceramics community were invited to submit an original ‘memory vessel’ to showcase the diverse and vigour of current Brisbane ceramic practice. From seasoned ceramists to those that are finding their footing, each vessel fosters the artist’s individual interpretation of a vessel and therefore, a unique range of bespoke pieces dress the Commune shelves with moving and inspiring statements.

A bounty of Spanish classics will be on the Palace Cinema big screens until July 5 for The Spanish Film Festival. The 32-film-strong line-up offers exciting, inspiring and entertaining viewing from the region, with a highlight cast on women in filmmaking. This weekend, catch a screening of films such as Full of Grace, Two Many Chefs, My Father’s Mexican Wedding, The Three Wise Men vs Santa, Grandfathers, In Therapy, Four’s A Crowd, Staring at Strangers, Cork and Prison 77. For the full program, grab the popcorn and click here.

Markets
A pre-loved treasure for every marketeer! Head to the Vintage and Vinyl Markets this Sunday June 24 and a rummage through a huge selection of genuine vintage clothing for all ages, local designer clothing, homewares, furniture and more. The crowning glory are the rows of records where you can nab the sounds of your beloved artists or discover new ones. Sticking to the theme (vintage, if you’ve forgotten) a vinyl DJ will be spinning beats from 2:00 pm before live music takes over at 7:00 pm while you eat, drink and mingle your weekend away. Before you ask, this is a pet-friendly event, so bring the family, four-pawed too!

If you’re eager to stroll through some stalls and stock up on some fresh fruit and veg over the weekend, be sure check out these markets happening – Saturday Fresh Market, Riverside Markets, Kelvin Grove Village Market, Jan Powers Farmers Markets, Davies Park Market, Carseldine Markets, Nundah Farmers Markets and the Redcliffe Markets. For delicious dinnertime eats, Eat Street Northshore is on for your snacking pleasure on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Events may be subject to be postponed or cancelled at the last minute. We do our best to remove cancelled events but be sure to check the organiser’s own event page for the most current updates.

Want more? Head to our comprehensive Event Guide for all of the fun around town where you can search by category, date, location and more!