Exaggeratedly large and elongated flowers swaying on green stalks with jewel-like ruby red tips. A field of metre-high crocuses that sway and change colour in time with music. A walkway through an archway festooned with tens of thousands of tiny individual lights …
These are just some of the optic treats visitors to Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens can expect to encounter when Lightscape Brisbane illuminates the space during this year’s Brisbane Festival – and beyond.
Lightscape Brisbane is on from August 29 to October 12 – extending its life beyond the festival.
Reimagined after making its Brisbane Festival debut last year, Lightscape Brisbane comes direct from London, New York and Chicago to dazzle viewers with a unique multisensory experience of light, colour and sound, featuring new lightworks, installations and soundscapes from local and international artists.
This year’s event introduces a strong indigenous theme, featuring works from Queensland First Nations artists Paul Bong, aka Bindur Bullin, and Michelle Yeatman, whose towering sculptural installations will take pride of place in the gardens, surrounded by a plethora of audio-visual displays and works.
Originally imagined to illuminate England’s revered Kew Botanic Gardens, Lightscape was first staged 12 years ago. Since then the specially curated illuminated trails have been showcased at various National Trust and UNESCO World Heritage sites across the UK and US.
Zoe Bottrell, managing director of Culture Creative, the events collective behind Lightscape, says that the project is driven by its “collaborative spirit” and always seeks to incorporate works by local artists from host cities into the experience.
“We design trails worldwide and work with different artists across different continents,” Bottrell says. “The pieces of indigenous artwork were commissioned by Brisbane Festival but the other work is by international artists that we work with throughout the year. Often, we commission artists to create a new work, or new versions of a piece of work, to fit with the landscape of the garden.
“For example, Electric Forest, which will be accompanied by a bespoke soundtrack by local artist Luke Peacock, looks very different in a pine forest in the Northern Hemisphere to how it will be presented in the Southern Hemisphere in Brisbane. We ship works from the United Kingdom and the containers are at sea for at least three months before they arrive in the gardens for our team to install.”
Lightscape made its Australian debut in Melbourne in 2022 and has since become a regular part of the line-up for Sydney’s annual Vivid Festival. With its rainbow-hued installations and glowing tunnels, it quickly became a favourite and this year’s iteration includes Submergence, an immersive experience where audiences move through thousands of suspended lights as the installation shifts and changes colour in response to their movements.
Visitors can also marvel at the Australian debut of Lili, created by French artistic studio TILT. Appearing to have just risen from the ground, the piece unfurls its spindly foliage like a protective corella around its delicate, star-spangled flowers and radiates shimmering, glittery colourscapes.
Lili sees a series of abstract, three-metre tall illuminated flowers waving from side-to-side while UK creators ArtAv return with their largest incarnation of Trapezoid, a long-time and immersive crowd favourite of visitors to Lightscape worldwide.
Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina says the 2024 program will “bring the city to life with daring ideas and memorable experiences”.
“I am delighted to welcome a new version of last year’s festival favourite to once again delight and dazzle visitors to Brisbane’s beautiful inner-city oasis,” Bezzina says. “This year’s Brisbane Festival program encourages us to embrace frivolity and I cannot imagine a more fitting place to do so than among technicolour trees, fields of luminous blooms and ethereal soundtracks.”
With its blend of modern artistry and the natural environment, Lightscape allows for a conversation between the organic and the artificial, between natural and enhanced beauty.
There are many attractions to arrest the eye – flashing, colour-changing exhibits and large-scale sculptures that will impress with their sheer size – but, aside from these human-made creations and bespoke creations, the trees of the City Botanic Gardens will themselves be decorated.

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Session times begin nightly at 5.45pm at 15-minute intervals and run until late. Visitors can experience the self-guided trail at their own pace, with the average walk taking about 90 minutes. Food and drink will be available for purchase along the trail.
Lightscape Brisbane, City Botanic Gardens, August 29 to October 12; tickets $42 adult and $32 children.
brisbanefestival.com.au
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