Queensland Music Festival

Queensland Music Festival returns for 3 weeks in July for an unforgettable musical journey with 26 bespoke events in 27 locations across Queensland. 

Guaranteed to delight and inspire music lovers from Brisbane to Woorabinda, the immense eclectic program is jam-packed with uniquely Queensland stories, including world premieres, Festival favourites, and spectacular community events.

Here are 5 Brisbane highlights worth checking out!

Join Australian living legend Archie Roach for a one-of-a-kind evening of music, tenderness, history and love when he performs at The Tivoli on Friday, July 5. In Let Love Rule, the inimitable Archie Roach re-imagines his repertoire spanning the last 30 years and gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Opening the evening is special guest Jessie LLoyd and her band performing the award-winning Mission Songs Project.

Celebrate The Genius of John Rodgers, one of Queensland’s true musical masterminds, at QPAC on Saturday, July 13. No other composer has encapsulated the sound of this state with more wit, beauty and imagination than John. From the brilliance of his song writing to the breadth of his musical vision, this concert brings a number of John’s outstanding creative collaborators together with Queensland Symphony Orchestra for the first time, as they showcase his incredible body of work. 

The enchanting story of one of the world’s most elusive birds, The Night Parrot, will come to life through an intimate evening of chamber music with the world premier of a commissioned work by revered Australian composer Jessica Wells. Inspired by the melodic and haunting call of the night parrot, the composition features Mackay-born soprano Morgan England-Jones and Acacia Quartet to evocatively convey the plight of this elusive species, at QPAC on Friday, July 19.  

Join trailblazing Queenslander Merle Thornton, an Australian feminist activist, author and academic, in conversation with her daughter and much-loved Australian actress Sigrid Thornton, for Frank and Fearless at Brisbane Powerhouse on July 26 and 27. Merle made history when she and Rosalie Bogner famously chained themselves to a bar rail to protest the refusal of drinks service to women in public bars. Interspersed with the songs that made Merle’s life, played on stage by emerging all female neo-soul outfit Pink Matter with special guest vocalist Tiana Khasi, this meeting of minds promises to go down in history.  

Help Is On Its Way is a spectacular event at Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on Saturday, July 27, when thousands of people will sing together to raise their voices in support of positive men’s mental health. Led by the renowned Dr Jonathon Welch AM, this mass choir will sing the powerful anthem ‘Help is on its Way’ with special guest and two-time ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, Glenn Shorrock, joined by Busby Marou, The McClymonts and Travis Collins.