Feed your spirit with a day of uplifting events

BLOCK

Explore your spiritual side with a diverse mix of uplifting works across the coast.

A feast for the eyes and imagination, Arboria mushrooms out of Broadbeach’s Kurrawa Park turf like an organic alternate world. Inside, this walk-in sculptural work uses colour and light to expand minds and enhance our sense of wonder with soaring domes, tunnels and sinuous pathways. A more pointed statement on Aboriginal sovereignty, Already Occupied plays with simple signage devices and modern traffic control to expand viewers’ perspective on the origins of the modern nation of Australia.

At the Roundabout Stage at Broadbeach, learn new dance moves and bust them out with hundreds of others when 10 ordinary Gold Coasters from all walks of life set their spirits free to create signature dance moves that represent who they really are at Yes, We Dance.

Bodies, bravery and mental fortitude are put to the test in the round in BLOCK (above). Set on the Roundabout Stage in Broadbeach, this contemporary dance work mixes circus and sheer athleticism to comment on modern life in the city; its pace, crowds and isolation. Be prepared to rescue your jaw from the floor as boundaries are pushed and athletic margins of error are reduced to split seconds.

Uplifting literally and figuratively, catch Hurihuri as it hits the Roundabout Stage or, more correctly, flies above it. What starts as a mix of street performance and traditional Maori dance takes to the air in a spectacular aerial dance featuring wheelchair performer Rodney Bell.

In Surfers Paradise, eyes will also be in the skies at Appel Park and the Nerang River as the Urchins dominate the landscape. This pair of five-metre crocheted sea urchins sculptures play with light and change with the weather, with one hovering over the water and the other at ground level. Visitors to Appel Park can walk inside the urchin there to watch its personality change as night falls.

On the Main Stage at Surfers Paradise, Ecstatic celebrates the diverse spiritual life of countries around the Indian sub-continent. Artists from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan showcase their world music traditions to create an intense experience designed to foster connections across the Commonwealth family.

With Festival 2018 on the home stretch, we’re pulling out all musical stops to get you moving.

Bullhorn

Warming up the crowd with R’n’B and hip-hop beats, Cheap Fakes and Tijuana Cartel will light the fuse to the night’s entertainment at the Queensland Music Stage, but hold something in reserve, people - things are about to get even brassier. Headlining the line-up, funk/soul outfit Bullhorn (left) will build on the musical momentum with their signature thumping big band party mix.

As they say, you mess with the bull, you get the horns!