About Anywhere
Anywhere Festivals is a Queensland based not-for-profit company leading the world by making it possible to experience exciting and engaging storytelling and performance anywhere. In fifteen years we have supported over 4,100 performance makers to present 891 productions and 611 World Premieres. We have worked with over a thousand partners to leverage $15.3m of support from partners with government funding of an incredibly small 4.2% or our total budget.
In a time when festivals are looking for sustainable innovative models, Anywhere Festivals continues to lead the way.
Anywhere Festivals makes it possible for performance makers to create works anywhere and for audiences to engage with storytelling while discovering local nooks and crannies.
Anywhere Festival, founded in 2011 by Paul Osuch, revolutionized the fringe festival concept by prioritizing artists’ creative freedom over financial burdens. Offering rent-free, non-traditional spaces, creative development support, producing resources, and festival marketing, the festival empowers artists to take risks.
Audiences discover unique performances in local nooks and crannies, such as poetry in lighthouses, circus in driveways, music in backyards, storytelling on ferries, theater in hedge mazes, and musicals in airplanes.
Beyond its role as a better alternative to the tired exploitative fringe festival model, Anywhere Festival has grown to host 500 performances annually since 2011. It has solidified its place as a fixture of the Brisbane performance calendar, inspiring many other festivals and practitioners to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions by performing in streets and outdoor spaces.
Anywhere Stands for...
The Community
Story telling began as something we did around camp fires. Over time it has been ghettoed inside traditional theatre venues and the structures that go with them. the buildings have become the focus instead of the art created in them.
We believe that for our own stories and performance to survive we have to stop creating theatres where people "go" for live performance. People need to see and engage with performance anywhere regardless of their income or location.
Value Our Storytellers
We believe that restricting performance to theatres places an unnecessary gatekeeper for artists and audiences.
The majority of performers and producers wait for rare slots in theatres and fringe festivals where there are more performances than audiences members and the entire financial risk is placed on the independent producer.
We value our storytellers and performance makers for what they do instead of a free cog that ensures the rest of the economic machinery make a living.
Local Business
We've also demonstrated that there is great opportunity for business and communities to benefit by placing performances in public and business locations.
We do this through innovative partnership with local businesses and performers by removing the fiscal and creative barriers in audience attendance. We create performance right where people live, work and play to make stronger, more vibrant communities.
Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we present Anywhere Festival, the Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi, Jinibara, Turrbal and Yuggera Peoples. We wish to pay respect to their Elders - past, present and emerging - and acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their stories continue to play.
