An invitation to 2025 Brisbane Anywhere Festival from Artistic Director Paul Osuch.
In parks and backyards, in op shops, down laneways and warehouses, across rooftops and in planetariums and bus stops. Over the past fifteen years, Anywhere Festival has posed a simple, radical question: what happens when we free performance from traditional theatres and reimagine the very idea of where art belongs?
This year, more than ever, we need that question.
The cost of living is rising. Artists are told to be more “resilient” while doing more with less. Audiences crave meaningful connection but are increasingly priced out of conventional entertainment. And still, despite the pressure and precarity, artists keep showing up—crafting new stories, conjuring bold experiences, and inviting strangers to see the world differently.
Anywhere Festival isn’t just a program. It’s an invitation. An invitation to step outside your routine, to stumble upon wonder, to rediscover the spaces around you—and the people within them. You might find yourself belly-laughing in a warehouse, moved to tears in a backyard, or singing along in a suburban garage. The setting shapes the story—and the story reshapes the space.
Since 2011, we’ve championed a model of performance that’s local, accessible, and artist-led. This year, we celebrate fifteen years of doing things differently: over 900 world premieres, thousands of artists supported, and a community that refuses to believe that creativity must be confined to black boxes and red curtains.
But make no mistake—this isn’t about doing more with less. This is about doing more with freedom. With curiosity. With imagination. With ingenuity. With trust. We give artists permission to dream in public, and we give audiences permission to discover and be surprised. In a world that often reduces art to formulaic content and spectacle to screens, that’s a quietly radical act.
So whether you’re a longtime Anywhere Festival fan or discovering us for the first time—welcome. You’re part of something unique, unpredictable, and real. You’ll find boundary-pushing works, hilarious experiments, intimate encounters, and joyful chaos. And you’ll help make them happen, simply by showing up.
Thank you to the incredible artists who dared to create, to our generous partners and venue hosts who opened their doors (and rooftops and garages), and to you, our audience, for saying yes to the unknown. Thank you also to our major partners, Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and Brisbane City Council for financially supporting Anywhere Festivals.
This is what performance looks like when it’s rooted in place, powered by imagination, and open to everyone.
This is Brisbane’s 2025 Anywhere Festival.
Let’s begin—anywhere.
Paul Osuch
Artistic Director
Anywhere Festivals
