Yonder Festival: 'An Opportunity To Celebrate Resilience, Passion & World-standard Creativity'

Coming up to Yonder this year, we wanted to capture where the Brisbane/Meanjin creative community has found itself after the pandemic period. We found ourselves looking back on the changes we’ve seen, feeling proud of how people came together during challenging times and wanting to highlight the exciting initiatives that are now leading the way forward.

As a multi-arts festival, Yonder is a place for more than just music. The festival is an opportunity to escape the every day and connect with one another through meaningful experiences with the arts, whether it’s through innovative performance, vibrant visual arts, eye-opening workshops or thrilling live music. It’s a safe, inclusive place for discovery of the self, new connections and new artists.

In 2022, in particular, we’re also inviting our audience to discover our new location: the Lost World Valley in the Scenic Rim. After eight months of searching, we can’t wait to host the festival in such a perfect, picturesque location. Bordered by panoramic mountain ranges that tickle passing clouds, the valley truly feels like a hidden secret, perfect for our November escape.

Curatorially, Yonder welcomes a very collaborative effort to engage the line-up across all art forms. We base our process around the applications we receive, which allows us to stay attentive to emerging and innovative artists around Australia. We value the place Yonder has in an artist's journey, having provided the first festival experience to up-and-coming acts; WIIGZ, Felivand, Jaguar Jonze and Sycco, among them.

This year, we are honoured to once again welcome rising stars to cut their teeth in a festival setting. We have no doubts that acts like Tjaka, Girl and Girl, Safety Club and Platonic Sex will make this experience worth their while and fly from the stepping-stone that is Yonder.

While we often gravitate towards familiar names, our programming also strives to provide captivating discoveries for our audiences that reward the inquisitive and adventurous. This year we are thrilled to welcome projects as innovative as Yirinda, a collaboration between Butchulla songman Fred Leone and the internationally acclaimed contrabassist/producer Samuel Pankhurst. Invoking thousands of years of stories and culture, this deep project will hypnotise crowds with kaleidoscopic harmonies, polyrhythmic mastery and holographic ancient stories. If you haven’t heard their single Nhaya, please check it out. 

Also coming from the left field will be Miles Brown, Australia’s premiere theremin performer, performing a set of dark Euro-inspired techno before we close with a one-time collaboration between the inimitable Fascinator and Full Flower Moon Band.

Throughout the pandemic period, it was beautiful to watch a renaissance of ambient, minimal and downtempo music emerge throughout our creative community. This resurgence led to our inclusion of a dedicated ambient stage, The Space Between Notes, in 2021, which featured long-form ambient performances by local producers. Back by popular demand, this project has brought several artists out of the woodwork to join our ambient effort, including our collaborator Phil Smart who will present three hours of collaborative meditation music in Be Hear Now.

Among our extensive ambient line-up will also be Spirit Lights, Mekema, and Tasmania’s Blue Screen Of Death. For those seeking liminal space, immersion in sonic subtlety, or just somewhere to relax in between dances, The Space Between Notes is for you.

Finally, Yonder 2022 will also see our largest engagement of the Brisbane/Meanjin dance community to date. Collectives in this community have worked tirelessly to provide welcoming and inclusive spaces over the past two years, and we can’t wait to hand them the keys to Yonderland. First and foremost, the Woolloongabba record store/venue Echo & Bounce will be bringing three hours of ambience and four hours of dance music to the festival, including live sets from Fatshaudi and Lithe. Bad Taste House Collective and Freeform will also be making the space their own, in between sets from some of Brisbane’s finest rare groove selectors, all of which will be coming to you through a pristine Funktion One house system. To host Australian DJ legends like Jen-E, Phil Smart, and Ralph Alfa alongside hot up-and-comers like Squidgenini, Dentallplan, and Theyphex Twins is truly something special, you won’t be blamed for spending the whole festival on the dance floor.

As the pandemic disappears into the past and we return to busy tour schedules and larger festivals, we don’t want to forget the incredible local artists and projects that have been fostered locally over the last two years. This festival is an opportunity to celebrate the resilience, passion and world-standard creativity that Brisbane/Meanjin can call its own.

Tickets to Yonder are on sale now.