Prepare for the premier contemporary multi-arts festival on the Sunshine Coast! Horizon Festival features ten days and nights of visual art, music, theatre, dance, words and ideas, film, and creative workshops inspired by the region’s history and natural beauty.
The Sunshine Coast’s Glass House Mountains in the south to Coolum Beach and Eumundi in the north are all part of the Sunshine Coast’s Horizon Festival, which runs from Friday, August 25, to Sunday, September 3. Moreover, the Festival Hub is located at Cotton Tree Park this year.
The Horizon Festival is a firm believer that art can transform. The festival program honours local and international artists who produce works representing the “here and now,” sparking fresh thinking and enhancing the region’s cultural vibrancy.
With a program honouring the Traditional Custodians of this Country, the Kabi Kabi and Jinibara Peoples of the coastal plains and hinterlands of the Sunshine Coast, the festival celebrates the natural beauty of the Sunshine Coast.
Moreover, this festival welcomes families and has a unique program for children of all ages. The festival is packed from opening to closing weekends on the coast, hinterland, and everywhere. Here are some of the events you ought to attend.
Festival Events
Opening Ceremony
August 25, Cotton Tree Park
Ground your feet as the sun sets and join us as we assemble on the Maroochy River’s banks to honour the Kabi Kabi and Jinibara peoples, Traditional Custodians of the Sunshine Coast’s waterways, coastal plains, and hinterlands, and to kick off the eighth Horizon Festival in 2023.
Come, sit, think, and celebrate the beginning of ten days and nights of engaging programming from the region and Australia, featuring special appearances by the Gubbi Gubbi Dance Troupe, the Jinibara Dance Troupe, and other dance groups.
Dr Hubble’s Bubbles
August 26 & 27, Wonderland Spiegeltent, Cotton Tree Park
Here’s a fun activity for youngsters. Australia’s favourite bubble guy is Dr Hubble. He enjoys playing with bubbles and has unparalleled control over them.
Dr Hubble will demonstrate bubbles you have never seen before, such as the square bubble, the octagon bubble, the chimney, and the explode-a-bubble, by manipulating ordinary soap bubbles to produce wondrous moments of awe.
Blak Social Party
August 26, Solbar, Maroochydore
Blak Social is hosting a party to honour Blak Music and the First Nations artists representing the past, present, and future of music on this continent. Alethea Beetson and Loki Liddle created the Indigenous arts collective Blak Social, which works with theatre, music, cinema, and internet strategy.
As The Last Kinection performs with GLVES, Ethan Enoch, and Djanaba in this spectacular Blak Social Party lineup, join the crowd and support these icons.
Tallo-Billa
September 1, Sunreef Mooloolaba
The Beeyali team will take attendees on a sunset ocean voyage on Sunreef’s Whale One during Horizon Festival 2023 so they may hear underwater and witness cymatic visualisations of humpback whale calls.
The field trip starts in Mooloolaba, where humpback whales migrate yearly and rear their calves before returning to Antarctic waters. It ends with an immersive performance of the new work “Tallo-Billa” near Old Woman Island, a once-in-a-lifetime event featuring a live stream of migrating humpback whales.
Take advantage of these events and many others that will take place throughout the Sunshine Coast’s premier contemporary multi-arts festival’s ten days and nights. You can reserve Sunshine Coast accommodation with us at Aegean Apartments for the Horizon Festival.
Horizon Festival Accommodation
Our Mooloolaba accommodation beachfront is just 60 meters from the idyllic Mooloolaba Beach’s snow-white sands and a short distance from the lively beachfront esplanade and The Wharf. Here at Aegean Apartments, you can take in the event and a beach holiday that will delight you.
Book your holiday accommodation at Mooloolaba beachfront directly!