Brisbane Festival 2026: Our favourite shows - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Brisbane Festival has wrapped up for another year, with the month of September bringing an incredible range of events to the river city.

There's been something for everybody, from world-slaying nostalgia acts to out-of-the-box theatrical creations, and everything in between.

All part of Brisbane's ambitious push to become a true world city ahead of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the festival has centred the creative verve of Queensland and beyond on the shores of the Brisbane River.

More than 1.7 million people attended ticketed and free events produced by almost 2,000 artists over the course of the festival, including 535,000 people who visited the festival village at South Bank.

Artistic director Ebony Bott said her first year at the helm had seen the festival's box office haul jump 46 per cent from 2025.

"I'm immensely proud of what we've made, but more than anything, I'm leaving these weeks with an even greater sense of what is possible here."

Here are seven shows we caught at Brisbane Festival in 2026.

A performance like no other, The Choir of Man welcomes audiences with free beer and makes you feel instantly at home in its English pub, Welcome to the Jungle.

The vocals are on point, with a song for everyone, making it almost impossible not to laugh, clap and sing along. The show originated at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival before gaining wider recognition after winning an Adelaide Fringe Award the following year.

The Choir of Man is an ode to blokes at the pub and won the Adelaide Fringe Award in 2018. (Supplied: Morgan Roberts)

It's staged inside the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, which has made a colourful and vibrant return to Brisbane, this time at South Bank, creating an impressive setting for the performance. Accessibility could be improved, however, with patrons needing to contact the service directly to arrange accessibility bookings.

The show repositions masculinity as a vehicle for connection. (Supplied: Morgan Roberts)

The show comes at a time when male relationships and ideas around masculinity are under the microscope. But it offers a refreshing reminder that male friendship can be positive, supportive and full of joy.

The Choir of Man is fun, frivolous and completely contagious. You cannot help but leave with a smile on your face.

Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller has captured the country's passion for Aussie Rules in her latest production Strong is the New Pretty. 

But more importantly, she's put a spotlight on the fight, and those behind it, for a national women's league. 

From the coach who was not seen as a contender, or even an option for the top jobs, to the believers battling first for a seat at the table, and then to be heard when in the room. 

Strong is the New Pretty captures the country's passion for Aussie Rules while centring the experiences of women. (Supplied: Morgan Roberts)

The audience transforms into a crowd in the grandstands as the players compete in exhibition matches and the first season of AFLW.

Miller draws on the experiences and character of those who have shaped the league since its establishment in 2017.

It is laugh-out-loud funny but also tackles the sexist comments and refusal to take women's footy seriously head-on.

The play is laugh-out-loud funny and touches on the juggle for women to pursue their dreams, careers and responsibilities. (Supplied: Morgan Roberts)

It celebrates its differences to the men's league, including singing in the dressing rooms. And touches on the juggle for women to pursue their dreams, from careers to caring responsibilities. 

While football is at its core, enjoying the game is not necessary. At the end of the day, it's about chasing your dreams, standing up to the doubters and championing the efforts of others.

After making its debut at the Brisbane Festival, the play will now travel to Canberra, Geelong and Sydney.

Icehouse faced serious challenges making it to the show. Longtime guitarist Paul Gildea has been in intensive care all week and is notably absent. At the set's end, frontman Iva Davies reveals he has just played the show while suffering from pneumonia.

But few bands demonstrate sheer professionalism like Icehouse, and they ensure the standard doesn't slip. The rejigged band — keyboardist Michael Best on guitar, tech Zeke on keys — eke every bit of drama and emotion from these 1980s classics. Davies's voice somehow doesn't falter despite his illness.

Icehouse's road to this show was a tough one, but well worth it. (Supplied: Kelsey Doyle)

One of the great recording acts of the 1980s have become one of the unmissable nostalgia acts of the current day, not just thanks to enduring hits like Electric Blue, Great Southern Land and We Can Get Together, but because they deliver to an exacting standard.

The band will celebrate 40 years of the million-selling Man Of Colours with arena shows across the country next year. (Supplied: Kelsey Doyle)

The songs shimmer and pulse and inspire as much awe here tonight as they have on record for the better part of 50 years.

Their Parklands show for Brisbane Festival is a comparably intimate affair and a real treat to fans before the band celebrate 40 years of the million-selling Man Of Colours album with arena shows across the country next year.

At its core theatre is a medium that allows and encourages flights of creativity, imaginative changes to format that ask questions about what is possible.

Based on the social deduction game, Werewolf places its audience in an isolated vault as a lycanthropy outbreak unfolds outside. The three wardens — their haplessness played to cringe-worthy perfection by stars Joel Baxendale, Stella Reid, and Hannah Kelly — begin to suspect there's a werewolf inside.

The three hapless wardens are portrayed with a deft touch by creator Joel Baxendale, Stella Reid and Hannah Kelly. (Supplied: Lewis Ferris)

Werewolf is formally inventive, and interactive in a way that requires a good audience, something the debut performance at the Powerhouse's Underground Theatre had in spades. 

Some in the audience have heard the werewolves communicate telepathically like the X-Men. Others are certain the outbreak began due to certain … acts … with a dog.

Werewolf's stars and production team execute the show with a professionalism that makes it look easy. (Supplied: Mouce Young)

Accusations fly, from both the wardens and the audience, and there's a guy who screams in terror every time someone says the word werewolf.

Achingly funny and self-conscious, Werewolf isn't afraid of wild leaps in genre. Periodically terrifying, these flights into horror are reliant on stellar sound and stage production that can really have you shaking in your boots.

Werewolf's stage and sound production enable wild flights from humour to horror. (Supplied: Lewis Ferris)

Werewolf strives to bring its audiences a laugh and a fright, and manages it in a way that makes something incredibly complex look like a walk in the park.

The show's manic energy leaves you with a feeling that the next audience could land on a different ending. Did we get it right?

Attenborough's Ocean in Concert offers an educational and confronting exploration of just how much humanity relies on the ocean, as well as the animals and unimaginable ecosystems that inhabit it.

Accompanied by Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Morris, the experience is deeply immersive. The beautiful string arrangements and live vocals add another layer of emotion to Sir David Attenborough’s message, bringing even more weight to what unfolds on screen.

Ocean in Concert creates conflicting emotions of beauty and existential guilt. (Supplied: Ollie Scholey)

The performance is both heartbreaking and inspiring, shining a light on the oft-unseen world beneath the surface and the damage being done to the ocean — while still leaving room for hope.

The production is a powerful reminder that the sea is not some distant, mysterious place; it is fundamental to our lives, our planet and our future.

Gorgeous string arrangements and live vocals accompany Sir David's narration. (Supplied: Doug Anderson)

Attenborough's Ocean in Concert is an experience that deserves to be seen by every Australian and one that would be particularly valuable in schools. It leaves audiences with a greater understanding of the world beneath the surface, and a sense that there is still hope for its future.

From early experimental work to the beloved cast of the Muppets and Sesame Street, Make, Believe, Magic is a wonderful journey through The Jim Henson Company's rich history.

Seeing the iconic puppets up close, some of which have never left the United States before, will bring a bit of whimsy to even the most cynical soul.

Bert and Ernie and Oscar the Grouch are certainly some of the Jim Henson Company's biggest draws. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)

The exhibition also elicits a healthy dose of nostalgia, with hundreds of characters, artworks and costumes brought out of the archives dating back 75 years.

The showcase truly has something for everyone, young or old. The incredibly detailed original sets from the Fraggle Rock series, shipped over from Canada, are a joy to explore and provide a fascinating peak behind the curtain of puppeteering.

The craftsmanship, passion and creativity of the Jim Henson Company feels like a true gift in the age of AI. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)

Getting a photo with Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus is a must — but it's not all about the loveable fuzzy guys — the creatures of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal are also on display in all their delightfully creepy glory.

The exhibition involves some of the Jim Henson Company's more grotesque creations, like the Dark Crystal. (ABC News: Liz Pickering)

In the age of AI and CGI, getting to see decades of The Jim Henson Company's craftsmanship, passion and creativity in person feels like a true gift.

The exhibition will live on beyond Brisbane Festival, running at the Gallery of Modern Art until April 18, 2027. 

While they were born from Sydney's pub scene of the 1980s, it feels right watching The Cruel Sea in an environment like Roma St Parklands. Hearing Dan Rumour and Matt Walker's guitars echo through the air on a balmy spring night unlocks a special kind of bliss.

Everything from the magnetism of frontman Tex Perkins to the tight and egoless musicality of the band holds up well. (Supplied: Kelsey Doyle)

Frontman Tex Perkins is typically funny, scary and magnetic, his voice is gritty and powerful but with an underlying soulful sweetness that makes songs like the sleek Woman With Soul hit as hard as the belting Better Get A Lawyer.

He is an outsized presence, but even for him it's difficult to outshine the understated musicality that The Cruel Sea bring. They're reminiscent of Booker T and the MGs: tight and egoless, creating a sound and feel within the framework of modern rock'n'roll that could come from no one else.

The Cruel Sea brings an understated musicality that feels right at home in the Roma Street Parklands setting. (Supplied: Kelsey Doyle)

Their performances hang together with a kind of natural looseness that can't be taught: the unspoken language between its members keeping their dynamics on point. And those songs on point. And those songs — including most of their chart-topping 1995 album Three Legged Dog — hold up so well.