Queensland Fringe Wraps Inaugural 1,472km Regional Tour at The Empire

The inaugural Queensland Fringe Festival has wrapped after a 1,472km journey through regional Queensland, drawing more than 4,350 people to its two-day finale at The Empire in Toowoomba.

Presented in partnership with The Empire by the team behind Wynnum Fringe, Queensland Fringe launched in Charleville on 1 August before travelling through Augathella and Roma on its way to Toowoomba for a finale on 6–7 August. The festival was built on a simple idea: rather than asking regional audiences to travel to Brisbane for ambitious cultural experiences, take the experiences to them. It also gave visitors a reason to get on the road, stay overnight, eat locally and explore the towns along the way.

"The response to Queensland Fringe from the Toowoomba arts community, the business community and the audience was incredible and inspiring," said Festival Founder and Artistic Director Tom Oliver. "Each night was a full house and the artists that live here are world class. Queensland Fringe is about creating a festival where you can jump in the car, travel through Queensland, stay overnight, discover a new town, eat at a local restaurant, meet local artists and then see an internationally recognised performer on a regional stage. That is a really powerful tourism proposition for Queensland."

The route — dubbed The Wild West — connected four distinct regional stops. Charleville hosted daytime access to the Charleville Horse and Motorcycle Gymkhana ahead of an evening Fringe show at the Cattle Camp Hotel featuring Festival Ambassador Wes Carr alongside local bush poets and musicians. Augathella followed with a community celebration at the Augathella Bowls Club, with bar proceeds going back to the local community. In Roma, an intimate live music and tasting night at Western Queensland Spirits paired whisky and gin tastings with performances from Carr and local artists.

The journey culminated in Toowoomba, where The Empire precinct and Walton Stores were transformed into a two-day cultural hub: 13 stage performances, 55 artists and 63 arts workers across four simultaneous performance spaces, six bars, a 10-metre purple carpet, and entertainment spanning music, comedy, theatre, film, visual art and cabaret. Drag collective Lushhh Drag, Pole Angels and local musician Micah Walmsley provided live entertainment throughout. A headline program brought together Jim Jefferies, Vanessa Amorosi, Dami Im and Wes Carr, while the theatre and screen program included MOCKINGBIRD (starring Mark Sholtez and Luke Kennedy), Songs My Aunties Taught Me, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), Behind Don't Tell, From Page to Stage, Twelve Days of Stillness, An Oak Tree and a screening and Q&A for The Shine Shootout. Sue Ray held her single launch alongside a lineup of emerging acts, including The Fern Sisters.

Queensland Fringe's inaugural Artist in Residence, Phoebe Paradise, created Where the Wildflowers Are, projected onto The Empire's façade throughout the week. Acclaimed chef Anthony Healy, the festival's inaugural Rogue in Residence, added a culinary layer with limited-edition dishes and immersive dining experiences that blurred the line between food, art and performance.

"Queensland Fringe gave us an opportunity to use The Empire in a completely different way, with audiences moving throughout the precinct, discovering something unexpected and experiencing an extraordinary mix of artists and performances," said The Empire CEO Giuliana Bonel. "Throughout the festival, internationally recognised acts shared our stages with local performers, established artists returned home to share their work, and audiences discovered new talent along the way. That's exactly what Fringe is all about."

The ambition extends well beyond a single festival. Queensland Fringe is positioning itself as a statewide cultural tourism event that grows in scale and reach in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. "We have an incredible opportunity between now and Brisbane 2032 to show the world that Queensland's cultural story doesn't stop at Brisbane. It travels across the entire state," Oliver said. "We want regional Queenslanders to have extraordinary creative experiences at their doorstep, while giving visitors another compelling reason to get on the road, stay longer and discover our regions."

The inaugural festival was presented in partnership with The Empire alongside major partners Toowoomba Regional Council, Enterprise Legal, Newlands Group, Oztix, ALE, Bartons, Jayco Brisbane Camperland, Port of Brisbane and Subfracture, with sponsorship from Bunker Insurance, Hutchison Builders, Murweh Shire Council, Tilly's, Toowoomba Grammar School and Western Queensland Spirit The Distilling Co, and additional support from ABC Radio, Queensland Country Tourism, Triple M Darling Downs, Tom Oliver Productions, the University of Southern Queensland and the Queensland Government.