BrisAsia Festival
Discover BrisAsia Festival 2023 - Connection through culture
BrisAsia Festival returns from 1-19 February 2023 to celebrate Lunar New Year! There's no better way to start your year than to connect with culture at BrisAsia Festival, with something on offer for the whole family.
Over the three weeks audiences can experience the transformative power of live performance, learn and grow through immersive experiences and travel the length and breadth of Asia across the incredibly packed festival program that has something for everyone.
Festival highlights
Kickstart your festival experience for 2023 at the BrisAsia Launch Party on Friday 3 February with traditional and contemporary performances, lion dancers and martial arts displays, guest Sydney-based KPOP DJ Nick Kim, local drag sensation Crimson Coco and more.
The hip hop, luxury car and Asian food truck event Southside by Night is back after it’s breakout success in 2022, as well as the dedicated tea festival, Laneway ParTEA. The digital food documentary, Mother’s Table, also returns for Season Two and this year you can even meet the restauranteurs and taste their sensational food!
New festival experiences for 2023 include the immersive multidisciplinary experience Soul Gazing: A Journey through the Cosmic Skydome at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, the inaugural e-sports workshop and competition Team Bliss Community Cup and the BrisAsia Pop-Up Exhibition: Youth with You.
Most events are free but some require tickets so check out the full program of events for further information.
Search BrisAsia Festival events
Art | Comedy | Dance | Family | Food | Music | Workshop
To see all Brisbane festival events for a specific date or date range, or to see a specific show, filter your search.
For events bookings, click on the event that you are interested in and go to the 'bookings' section in the detailed event information.
Mother’s Table
BrisAsia Festival presents Mother's Table.
Mother’s Table returns for a new season in 2023 with a fresh program that features local Asian-Australian restaurant owners sharing conversations as they prepare a favourite dish. Food from Asian cultures have long been an important part of the Australian culinary landscape and this series not only shares the process of making a dish, but also uses the act of preparing food as a catalyst for intergenerational storytelling and knowledge sharing.
Written and directed by Lark Lee and produced by Sounds Across Oceans for Brisbane City Council’s BrisAsia Festival 2023. In partnership with Tuk Tuk Restaurant and Bar, The Charcoal BBQ House, and Curry n’ Cask.
Tuk Tuk Restaurant and Bar
Mutita (Photong), owner and head chef of Tuk Tuk Restaurant and Bar in Brisbane’s inner West, is a diligent Thai woman who grew up cooking and working all the time to help her family.
Photong always dreamt of having her own business and looked up to her older sister, Yuey, who was at the time running Tuk Tuk Bar. After her sister returned to Thailand during Covid lockdowns, Photong purchased the restaurant from her, giving way to her decade long dream to own a restaurant. Her fiancé, Glenn, quit his job lecturing at a university to help Photong at the restaurant and work together.
To Photong, family is everything. She wants to help her parents live comfortably when she saves up enough money.
The Charcoal BBQ House
In an unforgiving world for Asian migrant cooks, two Korean chefs dream of changing the perception of cheap Korean food into a fine dining experience in Brisbane.
After working together for nine years with the renowned Rockpool Dining Group, Won-Cheong and Sang-duck opened The Charcoal BBQ house together on Brisbane’s southside. As the business grew and as new restaurant owners, Covid and subsequent floods had a significant impact on their dreams and vision.
With the money they put into the restaurant, the past years have been an unsettling time. They believe what gets them through the tough times is the great taste of their food and the love and support of their families. Their shared vision drives them to strive towards redefining the image of cheap Korean food and a dream to open a fine dining Korean restaurant on Eagle Street pier in Brisbane’s CBD.
Curry n’ Cask
A dedicated Indian husband, who has travelled all over India, dreams of making a romantic restaurant unlike any other Indian restaurant in Brisbane.
Gurinder met Neel at college and it was love at first sight. Moving around India for his work as an engineer, he tasted great food all over the country and developed a passion for sharing it with people.
After Neel and Gurinder moved to New Zealand and opened an Indian restaurant, sadly Neel was diagnosed with cancer. During this dark time, Neel’s parents and in-laws visited to look after her, but it was Jagandwi, their son, who helped Neel to get through it the most. He visited her at the hospital before he went to school. He told her she was beautiful and kissed her bald head every morning. After five years of battling cancer, they were depressed and needed a fresh start so they moved to Australia, the only country where her medical records could be transferred to, and they opened Curry n’ Cask in Corinda, Brisbane.
BrisAsia Emerging Artist Program
The BrisAsia Emerging Artist Program looks to reach out to the community, discover new talent and showcase the next generation of artists and creatives. Through community-wide expressions of interest (EOIs), emerging artists can apply to participate in the following programs:
- BrisAsia Live at the Brisbane Powerhouse
- Rare Voices at SunPAC.
Through these programs, artists will collaborate with respected industry professionals, receive mentorship and guidance in performance and intercultural collaboration.
BrisAsia LIVE Creative Residency – WABI-SABI
BrisAsia LIVE, Brisbane’s premier intercultural creative residency, explores dynamic perspectives on interdisciplinary art-making, creative expression and cultural knowledge sharing. This year’s residency explores the traditional Japanese philosophy of aesthetics known as Wabi-Sabi - a creative world view centred in the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Artists will explore the mediums of live improvised music, visual and performance art and installation.
This year the program invites young and emerging visual artists to apply for a new emerging artist fellowship designed to support the development of skills in instillation, live performance and intercultural collaboration.
To get involved in this year’s LIVE Creative Residency, complete an online expression of interest form.
Rare Voices at SunPAC
Rare Voices at SunPAC is a special concert event celebrating diverse vocal and instrumental traditions from across the Asian region. You and/or your community group could be selected to perform alongside some of Brisbane’s premier vocalists and instrumentalists at the Sunnybank Performing Arts and Cultural Centre, SunPAC, on Saturday 18 February 2023.
To get involved in Rare Voices at SunPAC, complete an expression of interest form (PDF - 272kb).
Festival producers
Sounds Across Oceans is a not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to promoting community harmony and wellbeing through innovative cultural programming across styles, genres and artforms. Inspired both by ancient and contemporary values and perspectives, SAO works to generate creative platforms where people from all walks of life can reach their creative potential. Through workshops, residencies, concerts, education programs and discussion forums SAO builds bridges between cultures and communities, supports cultural knowledge sharing and uplifts and connects people of diverse cultural and creative backgrounds.
Since its inception in 2017 SAO has produced BrisAsia Festival, The Ground Beneath Us Festival, Creative Fusions, The Tree of Life: Seniors Music and Movement Program, JADE New World Collective.
The SAO team for BrisAsia 2023 brings together a collective of leading independent producers Gemma Truong (Utopia Entertainment), Minh Nguyen (Australian Creative Arts Production), Lani Gibbins, Loic Robillot, Shokk Events, Big Fork Theatre, Shoku and Team Bliss Esports.
Festival partner
SBS is the official media partner of BrisAsia Festival 2023.
More information
For more information about BrisAsia Festival, email Council's Creative Communities team.