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2014 IN RE VIEW 2 014 Y E A R IN RE V IE W
C ON T E N T S
T H A N K YO U
After five years as Artistic Director, I couldn’t have asked for a better Festival to end my tenure. We achieved many benchmarks both creatively and at the box office this year. Having the Festival hub at South Bank proved once again a huge hit with Festival goers who turned up on mass to party and engage in the arts. Brisbane Festival has created in total 28 new commission works and 43 Australian premieres in the last five years, which I am incredibly
proud of and clearly sets Brisbane Festival apart. This year we warmly welcomed Treasury Casino & Hotel as Principal Partner and I would like to express my thanks to them and our Foundation Partners the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Brisbane City Council, long term partners Channel Nine and Sunsuper plus our wonderful gold, silver, bronze, distinguished Partners and supporters for embracing Brisbane Festival.
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As I move on to the next chapter I want to wish Brisbane Festival and all Festival goers a wonderful future of celebrating the arts and staying up late. N OE L S TAUN TON , Artistic Director
FAST FACTS
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
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Finally, I must say a huge thanks to all Brisbane Festival Board Directors, staff and volunteers. I have had a great team over the past five years and I am forever indebted to them; no dream was ever too big.
AUDIENCE
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Page 15
ACCESSIBILITY
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PARTNERSHIPS PARTNERS
2015 AND BEYOND 2 014 Y E A R IN RE V IE W
FA S T FAC T S
2014 FA ST FACTS
9 WORLD PREMIERES AND 3 AUSTRALIAN PREMIERES
ENGAGED 57 ARTS AND CULTURAL ORGANISATIONS
$2.5 MILLION BOX OFFICE REVENUE
OVER 79 SOLD OUT PERFORMANCES
OVER 890,000 ATTENDEES
OVER 70,000 TICKETS ISSUED
FREE AND TICKETED EVENTS
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79 PRODUCTIONS WITH O VER 440 PERFORMANCES IN VOLVING 1300 ARTISTS
HI G HL I G H T S
HI GHL I G HTS This year’s Brisbane Festival has continued to build on the success of past years by reaching an all-time high at the box office, up 65 per cent on 2013 – a fitting send-off for outgoing Artistic Director Noel Staunton.
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For three weeks, the pink-washed city was overrun with amazing performances, welcoming 79 productions including nine world premieres and more than 1,000 visiting artists from 13 countries. Grupo Puja’s breathtaking performance Do Do Land kicked off the Festival from 40-metres in the air, seeing thousands flock to the heart of the city in front of the Treasury Casino & Hotel. Even rain did not stop crowds from gazing upwards at the Alice in Wonderland-inspired spectacle. This year, Brisbane Festival stretched its magical influence the whole length of South Bank, reaching south to River Quay where Santos GLNG Twilight Music Series seduced crowds with free alfresco music, and north to the Whale Mall, where the world premiere dance and music work Ocean’s Skin mesmerised passers-by.
South Bank’s Cultural Forecourt became a beacon for festival-goers with the gigantic Brisbane Airport Light Garden made of 1,000 sticks of bamboo, the wonderfully ornate Telstra Spiegeltent and Exxopolis, a 1,000 square metre multi-coloured labyrinth of inflatable sculptures. The Telstra Spiegeltent was the place to be seen in September, with an overflowing Garden Bar every night. An increased seating capacity meant even more festival goers stayed up late with Andy Bull, Meg Mac, Ronny Chieng and Jazz on Sunday enjoying sold-out shows, while indie local The Kite String Tangle played to a packed house two nights in a row. LIMBO lived up to its saucy reputation as a must-see. It was impossible to get a seat at a weekend performance before the Festival even opened. Kids took over The Telstra Spiegeltent throughout the popular family program, with Circa’s world premiere production The Physical Impossibility of Disappearing warping minds and testing the limits of the human body.
‘It is impossible not to know that a festival is going on’ The Sydney Morning Herald
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HI G HL I G H T S
Audiences lapped up the return of SOAP at The Courier-Mail Piazza. The splashy, wacky show turned bath time into a blast with daring acrobatics, a mop ballet and a love story between two feet.
Over at QPAC’s Playhouse, DESH, was the talk of the town all week. Created and performed by Akram Khan – one of the world’s best contemporary choreographers and dancers – the one-man show received standing ovations every night and five star reviews and left audiences moved and inspired.
‘a solo dance piece of exceptional breadth in its theatrical power and embrace of other artforms’
DESH was presented by Brisbane Festival and Philip Bacon Galleries in association with Queensland Performing Arts Centre and supported by Arts Queensland Super Star Fund.
The Age
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Architects of Air’s unmissable Exxopolis proved a huge family hit with all tickets snapped up to the blow-up maze during the school holidays and on weekends, leaving visitors waxing lyrically about the otherworldly sensory experience.
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HI G HL I G H T S
Next door in the Concert Hall, the operatic sensation of the year, The Perfect American, put Brisbane on the map as only the third city in the world to see the latest work from iconic composer Philip Glass. The prestigious international and Australian cast absolutely shined, with Christopher Purves owning the role of Walt Disney, alongside Dan Potra’s extraordinary design and director Phelim McDermott’s vision. During the final week of the Festival in the Playhouse, Black Diggers continued a critical national conversation and showed Brisbane why it is one of the most important Australian plays of 2014. Sharing the highs and lows of Indigenous soldiers who fought in the First World War, audiences were deeply moved by the play’s raw emotion, expertly crafted from writer Tom Wright and Wesley Enoch’s skilful direction.
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HI G HL I G H T S
Theatre Republic at QUT’s Creative Industries Precinct was also a hot ticket, with sold-out seasons of Tears Before Bedtime, Run Girl Run, Point and Shoot and How to Keep an Alien. The abnormally funny Trygve Wakenshaw was the toast of the town with sold-out runs of both his comedy shows SQUIDBOY and KRAKEN. P. 5
Over at Brisbane Powerhouse, Monkey… Journey to the West proved the cult 70s show Monkey Magic still captures imaginations with a sold-out world premiere season. The new hit by theatre legends Kim Carpenter and John Bell evoked barrelling waves of nostalgia, while introducing Monkey, Tripitaka, Sandy and Pigsy to a whole new generation of fans. Also in the Powerhouse Theatre was the epic and provocative The Shadow King, an Indigenous interpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, which left a heavy imprint on audience notions of kinship and country.
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HI G HL I G H T S
In the same intimate venue, Motherboard Productions presented the world premiere of 대홍수Deluge, an intense, powerful and vast combination of contemporary dance, traditional Korean opera and live music inspired by the Brisbane floods.
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In a spectacular finalé, Sunsuper Riverfire, Brisbane’s biggest party, saw 500,000 people gather around the River to view the pyrotechnic extravaganza. This year, there was a special dedication to the Australian Light Horse Regiments and the muchloved Australian Defence Force Super Hornet and helicopter displays kept crowds entertained for hours. Brisbane Festival 2014 truly made its mark on the city – strong new partnerships were formed, box office revenue hit an all-time high and local, interstate and international visitors increased. Festival goers were left wishing every month was September.
Brisbane Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council.
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HI G HL I G H T S
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5 00,000 SUNSUPER RIVERFIRE ATTENDEES 5 08, 386 CHANNEL NINE T E L E V I S I O N V I E WE R S Sunsuper Riverfire was presented by Brisbane Festival in association with Triple M and Channel Nine
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AUDIE N C E
2014 A U D IE N CE
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7 7 O F F E S T I V A L AT T E N D E E S I D E N T I F Y A S AC T I V E A D V O C A T E S O F T H E F E S T I VA L
T H E R E AC H F O R N O N - P H Y S I CA L AT T E N D E E S WA S 7 3 7, 3 8 6
T WO T H I R D S O F F E S T I V A L TICKET BUYERS SIT IN A H I G H S O C I O - E C O N OM I C MARKET SEGMENT
Research data and findings have been collected and analysed by IER Pty Ltd. Melbourne, Australia 2 014 Y E A R IN RE V IE W
AUDIE N C E
2014 F RE E EVE N T A TTE N D E E S Visitor Origins
Age
New vs. Returning
Intrastate
Interstate
International
55-64
65+
14%
5%
9%
11%
6%
18-24 17%
45-54
New 21%
16%
Greater Brisbane
Returning
25-34
35-44
79%
30%
20%
72%
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2014 T I C K E T E D E VE N T A TTE N D E E S Visitor Origins
Age
New vs. Returning
Intrastate
Interstate
International
65+
18-24
13%
9%
3%
14%
9%
New 16%
25-34 17%
55-64 18%
35-44
Greater Brisbane
45-54
75%
22%
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20%
Returning 84%
M A RK E T IN G & C O MMUNI C AT I ONS
M ARK E T I N G & COMMU N ICA TIO N S 2014 was the most successful Festival to date with a record $2.5 million worth of tickets sold, a 65% increase on 2013.
Festival blog page views increased by
Facebook likes increased by
16%
378%
37%
Twitter followers increased by
Instagram followers increased by
Pinterest followers increased by
46%
106%
44%
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Website page views increased by
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M A RK E T IN G & C O MMUNI C AT I ONS
Digital 2,090,370 page views, 702,032 visits and 465,963 visitors to Brisbane Festival website, which was optimised for all mobile devices Email marketing campaign involving 31,296 enews subscribers 19 editions of enewsletters sent, 64 EDMs sent 62,730 Facebook fans 22,800 Twitter followers 4,436 Instagram followers 369 Pinterest followers 237 YouTube subscribers YouTube playlist of Brisbane Festival 2014 videos had 12,100 views
The Brisbane Festival brand and logo was reinforced with the continued use of the vibrant Festival ‘Pink’ Brisbane Festival painted the town pink with significant outdoor branding across the city with street banners, a new Queensland Rail advertising campaign, bridge banners, goa static and digital billboards plus pink lighting for the Story Bridge, Treasury Casino & Hotel, QPAC and the Wheel of Brisbane Branding also continued inside the Brisbane Airport Domestic Terminal and Singapore Airlines Lounge The 2014 campaign integrated the visually striking ‘Phantom’ font into the strong pink branding, creating an instantly recognisable combination In 2014, the theme of embracing the digital age was exemplified in the printed program cover imagery and style
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Advertising Online Gold partnership with The Courier-Mail Silver partnership with The Weekend Edition and mX Bronze partnership with The Music and Brisbane Times Approximately 8 million impressions made online across various media platforms Highly targeted online campaign with thecouriermail.com.au and brisbanetimes.com.au Increased mobile activity through The Courier-Mail mobile site and mX App Industry media inclusion on Limelight and The Music websites 8 week Wi-Fi campaign on Queensland Rail commuter trains generating 582,297 website visits
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Editorial content was generated for new Out and About Festival blog, receiving 21,539 page views
Branding
M A RK E T IN G & C O MMUNI C AT I ONS
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Radio Advertising
Gold partnership with Triple M
Silver partnership with B1O5
Bronze partnerships with 4BC & Magic 882
Distinguished partnerships with ABC 612 and Radio National
230 live and recorded commercials on B105
130 live and recorded commercials on Triple M
244 live and recorded commercials and promo spots on 4BC
187 live and recorded commercials and promo spots on Magic 882
30 live and recorded promo spots on 4ZZZ
Sunsuper Riverfire soundtrack broadcast live on Triple M
Live broadcasts of The Perfect American and Black Diggers on ABC 612
Television & Cinema
Platinum partnership with Channel Nine
Six television commercials receiving 305 spots on Channel Nine
3 Festival Spotlight TVC’s which aired a total of 11 times throughout ‘Festival City’ and ‘Home of Brisbane Festival’ promo spots
Four week cinema campaign across 228 screens in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Total attendance 87,491
Outdoor Advertising and Signage
Gold partnership with goa
Over 330 pieces of signage were printed and installed at all venues and South Bank
1.5 hours of dedicated television programming on Channel Nine for both ‘Behind the Scenes’ and Sunsuper Riverfire
New partnerships were created with Executive Channel and JC Decaux for Sydney and Melbourne targeted campaigns
89 promo spots aired on Channel Nine for the ‘Behind The Scenes’ program
376 street banners throughout Brisbane’s inner city
32 Street Banners on Musk Avenue
52 promos and crawls aired on Channel Nine for Sunsuper Riverfire live broadcast with a combined metro and regional audience averaging 508, 386
24 static and 128 digital goa billboard placements over 3 months
The Channel Nine LED screen returned to the Cultural Forecourt, South Bank
A fleet of branded Audi’s and 1 Yellow Cab decal
National coverage including Today Show, The Project, Channel Seven, Channel Ten and Channel Nine News
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M A RK E T IN G & C O MMUNI C AT I ONS
COLLATERAL
Inlink advertising campaign including 16 cafĂŠ screens throughout Brisbane
The Queensland Rail campaign including 130 panels in Brisbane commuter trains
8 x A1 posters installed in the Queen St Mall Busway
Television commercial aired 32 times daily for 4 weeks on King George Square & Queen St Mall television screens
Two 12m high Flytower banners were installed on the Playhouse Theatre facade of QPAC
North and South banners were installed on the Story Bridge along with Pink Lighting during September
35,000 88-page programs distributed via direct mail city wide distribution, Festival Partners and venues
372,000 highlights brochures distributed via The Courier-Mail and The Weekend Australian in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne
Gold partnership with The Courier-Mail
Silver partnership with map magazine and mX
Bronze partnership with bmag
National press included The Australian, Limelight, The Saturday Paper and The Guardian
Metropolitan press included The Australian, The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail
Local press included bmag, map magazine, The Music, Brisbane News, mX, Child, Brisbane Families
Regional press included Gold Coast Bulletin, The Australian (Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast)
Over 85,215 other marketing pieces including brochures, postcards, posters and in-theatre programs distributed via street distribution, partner promotions and on-site at Brisbane Festival hubs (50,000 brochures, 28,450 postcards, 265 posters, 6,500 in-theatre programs)
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Press Advertising
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M A RK E T IN G & C O MMUNI C AT I ONS
P UB L I C ITY RE PO RT More than 4,000 media clips generated
14 hours of TV including four hours of national or interstate TV
Media clips independently valued at more than $25.1 million (Advertising Space Rate)
National TV coverage on every station including Channel Nine news, Channel Seven news, Sky News, Today Show, The Project, ABC News 24 and ABC’s The Mix
12 cover stories including The Weekend Australian Review, CANVAS in The Courier-Mail, Sydney Morning Herald (Qld edition) and mX
150 hours of radio including 60 hours of national or interstate radio.
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International coverage in New York Times, The Guardian (UK and US), and Monocle (print and radio)
Clip Coverage per Geographical Market
Clips per media type Street Press Newsletter Magazine
State-wide International
Interstate
Radio
Newspaper
Local
Drive
Online
Television Regional National
Reach
Clip Count
%
Type
Clip Count
%
Local
689
17
Newspaper
341
9
Drive
504
13
Online
966
24
Regional
846
21
Television
1376
35
State-wide
256
6
Radio
1151
29
Interstate
1199
30
Street Press
57
1
National
416
11
Newsletter
22
1
International
60
2
Magazine
57
1
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AC C E S S IB IL I T Y
ACCE SSIBIL ITY Encouraging participation and engagement by the community is central to Brisbane Festival’s objectives.
Pricing
Brisbane Festival programs a wide variety of activities and events to appeal to a broad cross-section of the community including premiere international productions of opera and dance, new theatre productions and contemporary re-interpretations of classic theatre, contemporary circus, music and classical concerts, and family and children’s shows.
The Festival is very proud that our average ticket price is only $34. Strategies for lower priced tickets include Multi-Ticket packages providing 10%-20% discounts, concession, group and rush ticket prices, and discounts for participating artists and Partners. Additionally, Brisbane Festival created an array of free events such as Sunsuper Riverfire, Clem Jones City Hall Concerts, Santos GLNG Twilight Music Series, QUT Sessions, Brisbane Airport Light Garden and QPAC’s American Music Club events.
people with needs. The majority of our venues offer assistive listening systems, performance of three different text-based productions were Auslan translated (Black Diggers, The Button Event and A Doll’s House) and The Perfect American was surtitled. Audio Descriptions were also available for some performances of Black Diggers and The Perfect American. The outdoor and created venues of the Festival also were adapted to support mobility impaired patrons.
Place
Brisbane Festival supports environmental sustainability through using recycled or carbon-neutral paper and office recycling, and where possible, our programs, posters and banners use recyclable or biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials and inks.
The Festival co-commissions in 2014 of Black Diggers and The Shadow King recognise and celebrate Australia’s rich and diverse Indigenous cultures, while Monkey... Journey to the West, Deluge and Pesta Rakyat: Gapuranesia drew on Asian historical and cultural inspiration. Other activities such as RAPcity, goa Billboards Exhibition and Art From the Margins connected with our diverse local communities. Brisbane Festival engaged 540 local artists in the program to promote the quality of local artists, creators and their audience. To support skills legacy and build networks between artists, the Festival arranges social events, workshops, master-classes and a series of post-show discussions with leading artists and creators.
Events are programmed across a variety of different types of venues in Brisbane (eg. QPAC, Brisbane Powerhouse, Judith Wright Centre, QTC, La Boite, City Hall, Queensland Museum, QUT Creative Precinct, public spaces). Festival events The Perfect American and Black Diggers were broadcast via ABC Radio National and ABC TV and available online at ABC iview ensuring an audience reach both regionally and nationally. Brisbane Festival utilises venues which have policies and processes to support quality experiences for
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Sustainability
When using outdoor spaces for venues and events the Festival works closely with local councils and government departments to ensure appropriate measures are taken for rejuvenation of grass and other outdoor areas. Also, Brisbane Festival engages our Bronze Partner SITA to ensure the highest standards of sustainability for rubbish and waste removal.
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Program
PA R T NE R S HIP S
C O RP O RATE P A RT N E RS HIPS
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Brisbane Festival takes every opportunity to thank our generous, dedicated and strategic Partners who make our great Festival possible. We work hard to tailor each partnership to the needs of the Partner, delivering across key performance areas such as financial, branding, staff engagement, operational and service to the community. We encourage our Partners to work with us to create engaging campaigns that connect with the Festival’s audience members.
All of our Partners are so important to securing the future of Brisbane Festival. Long term partnerships provide the stability to ensure artistic and community growth each year. As one of Australia’s youngest major festivals, Brisbane Festival is poised for exponential growth due to the loyal support of the strategically-minded businesses that partner with us.
Treasury Casino & Hotel 2014 saw us officially welcome Treasury Casino & Hotel as Principal Partner. This partnership showcases Treasury’s commitment to the people of Brisbane and provides the opportunity to engage the broader community before or after any show through their network of restaurants, bars, hotel facilities and entertainment options. We were proud to host a number of our highest profile networking events at Treasury this year including our spectacular Opening Night Party on a purpose built stage and will continue to host Brisbane Festival key events into 2015 and beyond at Treasury Casino & Hotel.
Our new partnership with Treasury enabled our Festival to perform in a new Festival venue, Redacliffe Place, for a huge free spectacle of Do Do Land across the Opening weekend.
New Partners In addition to Treasury, 2014 also saw several new significant partnerships. These included technology and telecommunications experts, Telstra, local print media partner, mX, technology partner Datacom, expert logisitics team DB Schenker, high level communications brand, Executive Channel, street furniture advertising specialists JC Decaux, and luxury car brand Audi. We also enjoyed growth through invigorated partnerships with returning partners: Singapore Airlines, now aligned as Presenting Partner to the Festival Flavours program, QUT, Presenting Partner to the always exciting Theatre Republic, Griffith University co-presenting The Perfect American, and Brisbane Times significantly increased their investment in the Festival this year with the introduction of BrisTix.
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‘As a local business, we look to support the local community. Brisbane Festival does this and more, attracting much of the local and national community highlighting why we all love Brisbane’ Clinton Wright, Marketing and Corporate Manager, Audi Centre Brisbane
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FOUN D A T I ON P ARTNE RS Queensland Government
Brisbane City Council
As one of the Foundation Partners of Brisbane Festival and a major stakeholder, Queensland Government’s relationship with Brisbane Festival is a core ingredient to the Festival’s success. This relationship through Arts Queensland enables Brisbane Festival to engage the broader community in a celebration of Brisbane and our position in the world. Arts Queensland’s partnership ensures that the Festival can create a popular and artistically acclaimed Festival through their continued and significant investment.
Brisbane City Council is a Foundation Partner and longstanding supporter of Brisbane Festival. Jointly, we work collaboratively to promote Brisbane globally as well as encourage and enable participation in enjoying this great city. The Festival enjoys working closely with Brisbane City Council and its Counsellors to spread the joy of the Festival across our vast city and encourage people to get out and participate throughout September.
In 2014, the Tourism and Events Queensland partnership was closely aligned with the production and marketing of The Perfect American. Hosting the Australian premiere of such an esteemed production was a coup for Brisbane. With the core objective of enticing visitors to Queensland, Tourism and Events Queensland’s investment ensured broad marketing exposure nationally and internationally.
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PL A TIN U M PA RTNE RS Channel Nine
Sunsuper
Channel Nine and Brisbane Festival enjoy a loyal and dedicated partnership grown over many years. This relationship has developed into one of the Festival’s most recognisable partnerships. Channel Nine support Brisbane Festival through extensive media exposure, enabling the Festival to reach far beyond the city limits and into the houses of hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders. In 2014, partnership with our official television partner involved a highly successful alignment with Sunsuper Riverfire and the enormously popular Exxopolis.
Each year Sunsuper Riverfire lights up the night skies across Brisbane and ignites imaginations across the state. Our most popular event, enjoyed by more than 1 million people each year, Sunsuper Riverfire is the iconic event of the Festival, made possible by the partnership with Sunsuper. Naming Rights partner since 2011, Sunsuper continues to leave an indelible mark on the brand that holds the heart of Brisbane.
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‘Not only was it a delight to work with the Festival team on a professional level, the quality of guests at their events was exactly our demographic and a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our venue’ Grace Likidis, Marketing and Events Manager, Ghanem Group (Black Bird Bar & Grill)
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GO L D P A RT NE RS Australian Defence Force
goa
What would Sunsuper Riverfire be without a spectacular air show from the joined forces of the Australian Defence Force? Closely aligned with Sunsuper Riverfire, the ADF partnership truly contributes to the overall experience of the Festival’s closing night.
One of the Festival’s most participatory activities each year, the goa Billboards Exhibition, engages with school students and upcoming artists from across Brisbane. In its 17th year of partnership, this year the goa Billboards Exhibition celebrated the theme of ANZACs, inviting entries from the public in the genre of photographic art. The free exhibition celebrated the depth of talent in our young visual arts community from across Brisbane. goa’s contribution to the Festival through static and digital outdoor sites and signage across Brisbane truly paint the town pink and unmistakably create awareness that it’s Festival time.
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Brisbane Marketing Charged with the responsibility of getting Brisbanites out to enjoy their City while encouraging visitors from further afar to embrace our City, Brisbane Marketing and the Festival enjoy a joint goal. Working together to mutually beneficial ends, Brisbane Marketing and the Festival joined to present the programming in the South Bank Festival Hub including Sunsuper Riverfire, Santos GLNG Twilight Music Series, The Telstra Spiegeltent, SOAP and Exxopolis.
The Courier-Mail Brisbane Festival is proud to have a loyal partnership with the newspaper read by 1.4 million Queenslanders each week. Aligned this year with SOAP – performed in The Courier-Mail Piazza – a partnership with The Courier-Mail goes a very long way to ensuring the public acclaim and success of the Festival each year.
Opera Queensland The Perfect American was one of 2014’s highlight performances and Presenting Partner Opera Queensland played a vital role in bringing this performance to Brisbane’s Concert Hall stage. Partnering with Brisbane Festival, Opera Queensland’s collective expertise enhanced the Festival’s presentation of this amazing production.
Philip Bacon Galleries One of Queensland’s truly generous philanthropists and advocates for so many artforms, Philip Bacon and the Philip Bacon Galleries continue their support for Brisbane through the Festival. The Partnership this year enabled the staging of DESH which brought significant national recognition for the Festival and high critical acclaim.
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The Post Lounge
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Winners of the coveted Silver Award in this year’s BADC Awards for the production of the launch video for Brisbane Festival, The Post Lounge and Brisbane Festival celebrate a symbiotic brand alignment and shared creative culture. The Festival is so proud to work with The Post Lounge each year as they create work of enormously high quality as well as creativity.
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
South Bank Corporation
As Queensland’s home of performing arts, QPAC is the perfect Partner to the Festival. We enjoy a dynamic partnership with QPAC whose generosity extends beyond venues and into the heart of our organisations. Each year QPAC is home to some of our centrepiece performances and our audiences know that when an event will be hosted at QPAC, the experience will be a premium experience. In addition to being the host of our performances, QPAC in 2014 also joined us as Presenting Partners to The Perfect American, DESH and Black Diggers.
South Bank Parklands signify the heart of the Festival where ticketed and free events are hosted throughout September. It is undoubtedly the hub of the party! The home of free outdoor events such as the Santos GLNG Twilight Music Series, free interactive exhibitions like the Brisbane Airport Light Garden, our most popular productions like SOAP and Exxopolis, events of great artistic acclaim such as DESH and The Perfect American and the beating heart of the Festival at The Telstra Spiegeltent. South Bank is the home of Brisbane Festival.
QUT QUT has managed to create with the Festival one of our most multifaceted partnerships. Culminating in the presentation of the ever increasing success of Theatre Republic at QUT’s Creative Industries Precinct, the partnership also extends to a vast array of student engagement opportunities such as internships, meet and greet opportunities, master-classes, and involvement in the curriculum through presentations and tutorials.
Southern Cross Austereo Brisbane Festival and Southern Cross Austereo enjoy a loyal partnership that engages people across many facets of the Festival. The whole of Brisbane enjoys Sunsuper Riverfire to the pulsing soundtrack created by Triple M. In 2014 B105 aligned to the incredibly successful LIMBO. This partnership went above and beyond and was a key factor in the early ticket sales for this new Telstra Spiegeltent event.
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‘Sponsoring Brisbane Festival and hosting Theatre Republic provides a wealth of opportunities for our students and graduates to gain real-world experience’ Professor Mandy Thomas, Executive Dean, Creative Industries Faculty, QUT
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P A RT N E R BE N E FITS Each department within Brisbane Festival works hard to ensure success not only of the Festival each year, but success for each of our Partners. Each Partner company has different target audiences, key objectives, and ultimately different ideas of success. Brisbane Festival enjoys the capability of delivering on very different levels and enjoys the challenge of tailoring our partnerships to best meet the ideals of our Partners. Some of the areas in which Brisbane Festival excels as a partner include:
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Branding Benefits With targeted and segmented audiences of over 1 million people each year, Brisbane Festival’s command of Brisbane in the lead up to and the beginning of Spring each year is unparalleled. Our audiences are engaged, loyal and participate in the Festival, with most audience members attending multiple performances and events. This ensures tangible involvement in our brand plus enables our Partners to influence audience members through many touch-points. Brisbane Festival’s marketing campaign each year reaches broadly across many demographics and also cuts deep with multiple exposures to targeted audiences.
Operational Benefits Brisbane Festival is a major event machine like no other. Our shared expertise assists our Partners to deliver unique events through access to our expert team.
Networking Everyone remembers their time spent at Brisbane Festival and our Partners enjoy utilising this benefit
to leverage their networks. In addition to entertaining their own networks in unique locations and creating amazing experiences, Brisbane Festival Partners enjoy many opportunities to access high level decision makers at fellow Partner organisations.
Reputation Partnership with Brisbane Festival also provides the best opportunities to ensure enhanced community reputation as a generous corporate citizen and access to various community groups. The goodwill engendered through Festival Partnership is substantial and a key objective for several Festival Partners.
Corporate Entertaining Hosting clients and staff at a Brisbane Festival production offers the most unique corporate entertaining opportunity in Brisbane. Nowhere else will your clients be treated to a bespoke venue only in existence for a few weeks. Each year the venue, menu and entertainment is distinctive and never to be repeated. Brisbane Festival offers exclusive corporate entertaining opportunities to a very limited number of companies, ensuring that your clients will know that you stand out from the crowd.
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Employee Advantages A key deliverable of Festival Partnerships is our Partners’ Family days and exclusive employee discounts. Rewarding staff and encouraging positive employee relationships, our Family Days are a unique and unparalleled opportunity for our Partners to provide a gift to their staff. A partnership with the Festival provides a key opportunity for Partners to reinforce their corporate cultures through shared experience and encourage staff pride and loyalty.
Market Advantage The Festival specialises in offering the opportunity for our partners to engage with targeted market segments and to differentiate their corporate brand. Brisbane Festival encourages our Partners to work with us to deliver innovative cross brand activations that help reach new customers and increase market share. Additionally, many Partners are our dedicated suppliers and we really enjoy not only promoting their offerings but using these expert services and products ourselves.
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‘Brisbane Festival also provided us with new ways to celebrate, reward and engage our team with a Treasury family fun day and the opportunity for our team to attend performances’ Geoff Hogg, Managing Director, Treasury Casino & Hotel
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2014 PA RTN E RS Foundation Partners
Brisbane Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council
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Principal Partner
Platinum Partners
Gold Partners
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PA R T NE R S
Silver Partners
Bronze Partners
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Distinguished Partners
Supporters Black Bird Bar & Grill
Iceworks
The Regatta Hotel
Champ Kitchen + Bar
The Jetty South Bank
Riverbar & Kitchen
Customs House Restaurant
The Kitty Bar
South Bank Surf Club Bar & Restaurant
Fat Noodle
Lock ‘n’ Load
Vintaged Bar + Grill
The Fox Hotel
Pondera Physiotherapy & Pilates
Watt Restaurant + Bar
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2015 AND BEYOND
Great arts festivals connect artists and audiences in ways that lift the spirit, disrupt the conventional, and open eyes and hearts to the world. Brisbane Festival is part of that bold enterprise. It’s a great festival of great arts. It announces the start of Spring – a time of creation, renewal and aspiration – and makes us feel alive to the present. Brisbane Festival is for everyone, and makes us feel as one. It makes us excited to live in Brisbane, and makes others wish they did. It is also a vast
collaboration. Artists, audiences, governments, businesses and contributors of all kinds join forces to make something that is more than the sum of its parts. The first of my four festivals arrives in September, 2015. I invite you to be part of it. I hope, together, in a shared spirit, we can offer exceptional arts experiences that will expand our notion of the world and what is possible within it. DAVID BERTHOLD, Artistic Director
Brisbane Festival 2015-18
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Brisbane Festival Board PAUL SPIRO, Chair PHILIP BACON AM, Deputy Chair CORY HEATHWOOD PE TER HYL AND IAN KLUG ANNA MARSDEN AMANDA NE WBERY MICHELLE PILLONEL BERNARD P ONTING IAN T URNER CHRIS T YQUIN
Brisbane Festival 2014 Management Team NOEL STAUNTON, Artistic Director VALMAY HILL, Chief Executive Officer DANICA BENNE T T, Business Development Director REBECCA DRUMMOND, Finance Director/Company Secretary JUSTIN GRACE, Marketing and Communications Director TIM PACK, Technical Director BECK PEARCE, Executive Producer
Contact PO Box 3943 South Brisbane QLD 4101 P: +61 7 38335400 F: +61 7 38335450 E: brisbanefestival@brisbanefestival.com.au W: brisbanefestival.com.au
Images by Atmosphere Photography
BRISBANE FESTIVAL 2015 DATES 5–26 SEPTEMBER