Afterglow (Light Show)
Brisbane Botanic Gardens lights up. This night time walk is so beautiful.
TLDR
Light Show
Brisbane Botanic Gardens
Ticketed ($36)
Running Until 27th September
The Basics
An after dark experience with a variety of curated lights creating a brilliant walk through Brisbane Botanical Gardens. There is a fire twirling and dancing show amongst it also.
My Experience
Just a reminder that Afterglow is running as part of the Brisbane festival. It’s happening now till the 27th September.
It’s a ticketed event and I was lucky enough to get invited to the opening. I will admit this wasn’t something I would usually do because it screams huge crowds and unorganised chaos. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The session are timed and so you aren’t all crammed in. When I went there was room to breathe and I even walked slower and let people get a head of you which meant some parts I had totally to myself. IT WAS MAGICAL…no screaming kids!
It’s a light and sound show that has been curated with some stunning works. Indigenous artists kick off the hour long walk with a beautiful smoking ceremony and narration that teaches you about what is going on before your eyes.
The event is held in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens and its totally unrecognizable. The way its setup has you feeling like you are walking through a new world.
Halfway though there is a marshmallow toasting station where you get a marshmallow (you pay for it obviously) and there are fenced off fire pits and sticks where you can roast one. THe kids seemed to love this and it also keeps them entertained when they might get a little bored. But I doubt they will be as there is just so much to look at.
However for those kids needing a distraction this comes at the perfect time. My gorgeous nephew has WAY TO MUCH energy and he would need this to just help keep his mind from wandering. I will say though WATCH YOUR KIDS HERE. There are signs up everywhere saying this however I did see some distracted parents and that worried me with the open fire pits (they are fenced but kids are masters of everything.
You continue on for a little while and then you encounter the FIRE SHOW! Fire twirlers do an amazing dance for about 10-15 minutes to a gorgeous sound track. This was mesmerising. I want to sat the performance is timed to start about when you should be at their location, which is roughly 75% of the way through, so don’t hurry and don’t dawdle. I dawdled but didn’t stop for a marsh mellow and when i arrived at the fire twirlers only waited about 10 minutes for their performance to start.
I did like that the works had QR codes you could scan to explain what you were seeing and hearing.
My advise is go to a session mid week and late as its less likely to have kids running around. My session was a 7pm on a Thursday and it was a preview session on the 4th of September but it was still super busy and there were lots of families with kids but it didn’t put me off.
The only annoying thing was the food trucks at the end of the walk LOOKED SO DELICIOUS but the wait times were LONG! There went as many trucks as there should have been I felt so the choices weren’t endless, but it was great to have at least some food options there, dessert and dinner also Felons has a pop up bar there.
I really enjoyed this event and hope it becomes a staple for the Brisbane Festival. It’s like a less hectic more centralised VIVID SYDNEY.
Tickets are $36 for adults, $30 for kids and under 2 are free. I would love this to be a free event to make it accessible to all, but when you visit, the sheer volume of work that’s been put in you can understand the cost. I’m not sure this would work at a free event just yet but hopefully in future Brisbane City council and the State Government will invest in making it an event everyone can attend.
To be fair there are so many free events as part of the Brisbane Festival! It’s such a great festival and I implore you to take your kids or even just yourself. I remember mum taking us to the Sydney Festival once when we were really little. It was SO FUN. To drive into the city and see these gorgeous big lights on the harbour. It’s something that has stuck with me. While this trip for mum was chaotic and parking was a nightmare I remember it so fondly. It’s a core memory of me with mum and my brothers.
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