Queensland Music Festival: 20 Years

20 years of transforming communities through music.

The Opportunity

The Queensland Government established Queensland Music Festival in 1999, inspired by an ambitious vision of how a state wide biennial music festival might help address the geographical and social disadvantage experienced by our regional and remote populations, and bring superb music to Queenslanders from all walks of life.

The Outcome

Queensland Music Festival brings leading artists and communities together to create music experiences that celebrate the cultural identity of people and place. Particularly for people living in regional and remote places, Queensland Music Festival offers access to and participation in world-class performing arts experiences, many of which are specially designed to inspire communities to celebrate their own unique role in the story of Queensland.

M+
Audience Reach
Queensland Locations Visited
Events Produced
New Works Commissioned

Project Overview

Since its inception, Queensland Music Festival has grown from a biennial music festival to an incubator of innovative music, cultural, and social change programs. We have worked with artists, communities, and organisations across a range of sectors to produce signature events, mass participation music experiences, tours, musical installations, workshops and skill-building programs, and new works inspired by Queensland’s stories, places, and people.

Particularly for people living in regional and remote places, Queensland Music Festival has become a cherished platform for access to and participation in world-class performing arts experiences, many of which are specially designed to inspire communities to celebrate their own unique role in the story of Queensland. 

As QMF looks to its future, using music as a vehicle to drive social change, the organisation has embraced the role of research, evaluation, and meaningful, evidence-based outcomes analysis in our program design and delivery. We are therefore committed to:

  • Collaborating with research partners by providing case studies and models for researchers undertaking participatory action research in communities, thereby helping to progress current understandings of how to facilitate social change through music.
  • Continually analysing and embedding the latest scholarly research into our program design and delivery, in order to ensure we are operating according to best-practice principles and achieving the best possible outcomes for our stakeholders.

Queensland Music Festival Directors

1999: The Hon. Matthew Foley
Founder
Queensland Music Festival

1999: Claire Booth
Executive Director
Queensland Music Festival

1999: Simone de Haan
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2000 – 2005: Lyndon Terracini AM
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2006 – 2007: Paul Grabowsky
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2008 – 2011: Deborah Conway
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2008 – 2018: Nigel Lavender
Executive Director
Queensland Music Festival

2012 – 2015: James Morrison
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2016 – 2019: Katie Noonan
Artistic Director
Queensland Music Festival

2019: Joel Edmondson
Executive Director
Queensland Music Festival

Program Highlights

Over the last 20 years, Queensland Music Festival has collaborated with some of Australia’s most iconic artists. They include:

Paul Kelly

Archie Roach 

John Farnham 

Kate Miller-Heidke 

Vika and Linda Bull 

Katie Noonan 

Merle and Sigrid Thornton

Kate Ceberano 

Yothu Yindi 

William Barton

Sarah Blasko 

Deborah Conway 

Elena Kats-Chernin 

Glenn Shorrock 

Busby Marou 

Dr Jonathon Welch AM 

Jessie Lloyd & Mission Songs 

Emily Wurramara

Dan Sultan

Queensland Music Festival’s signature events are a spectacular vision of how music can foster community collaboration and togetherness.

Joel Edmondson, CEO – QMF

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