Message from Artistic Director Paul Osuch
Welcome to Anywhere Festival, a festival of performances Anywhere!
Two weeks ago as we were cleaning out the Anywhere Festival storage space in West End and the brand new office and hub space at the old Jo Jo’s Restaurant in South Brisbane I was wondering whether the program was going to be revealed at all.
Both spaces were converted into temporary mud brown swimmable pools and most of our gear and furniture went under.
Many people I knew were in a worse situation as well as our performers and venue hosts. It felt like 2011 when we started the festival, but worse.
Since then we’ve cleaned up, gotten used to sitting on the floor a bit more and with all our wonderful local independent artists and venues have put on the finishing touches so that we could launch the 2022 Brisbane Anywhere Festival to provide a celebration of Brisbane extraordinary performance makers and places.
Anywhere Festival will once again take temporary possession of everyday and extraordinary places through Brisbane this May for the twelfth year to present an intimate discovery of places and performances.
Now more than ever it feels it is important for us to connect through performance and storytelling and to connect in our everyday spaces to help us build new memories that have been traumatised from the events of the last couple of weeks years.
It is also vital that Anywhere Festival continues to provide a way for local performance makers to create shows where they can take creative risks without the financial risks in a way that is still unique through our support and those of the homes, businesses and public spaces providing their spaces for performance.
This year local performance makers have imagined and reimagined shows in nooks and crannies we know you’ll love to explore: warehouses, World War II airplane testing centres, tool libraries and your home among many more.
There are some regulars we know you love as well as a lot of new spaces to explore.
We also invite you to our first ever opening night celebration on the first Thursday – 5 May in partnership with Aria Properties and with thanks to The Bach Living by Stefan.
Experience tasters of many of the festival performance in the nooks and crannies of Fish Lane followed by shows and an after party in the Anywhere Hub space at the Old Jo Jo’s restaurant on Melbourne Street South Brisbane. RSVP here to be kept in the loop as full details are announced.
Anywhere Festival wouldn’t be possible without Brisbane City Council’s financial support of the festival and Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s support to support local artists and support Anywhere Festival as an organisation with four year funding.
It also wouldn’t be possible without Zed Hopkins, who came on last year as Anywhere Festival’s local Assistant Creative Producer to support me and is now onto his second festival taking on more responsibility.
Thank you you to the Anywhere Festival board for going with the flow (pun not intended) in a festival and organisation that is unique in its flexibility and has demonstrated how and why a festival can continue through adversity.
Thank you to all the amazing local performance makers who have thought ambitiously with their shows this year and to the local businesses who are hosting their performances.
Finally I want to thank you for being a part of Anywhere in 2022. Every show in this program is something I want to see and we’re confident you’ll feel the same.
See you anywhere.
Paul Osuch
Founder and Artistic Director
Anywhere Festival
