Silver City will no longer rise like a futuristic village at South Bank

It was supposed to be a transformative experience and a seminal part of Brisbane Festival’s BOQ Festival Garden on the Rainforest Green at South Bank but Circa’s Silver City has fallen victim to Covid and manufacturing problems in Europe.

The Silver City event by acclaimed Brisbane circus company Circa and UK architects AL_A has been cancelled.

The Silver City event by acclaimed Brisbane circus company Circa and UK architects AL_A has been cancelled for the 2021 Brisbane Festival due to delays in finalising overseas manufacturing of its inflatable structure contributed to by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Silver City was supposed to rise like a funky futuristic village on the Rainforest Green as part of the BOQ Festival Garden at South Bank, the festival’s new hub. It was billed as a “a luminous constellation of chrome bubbles” offering “ a moving and transforming experience where acrobats tumble and leap while floors and ceilings rise and fall”.

Brisbane Festival Artistic director Louise Bezzina will party on despite losing a seminal work of this year’s Brisbane Festival. (Image/Josh Woning)

Circa has recently been showing an iteration of the work in Spain but the bubbles for Brisbane just weren’t going to be ready in time according to Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina.

“These are very precarious times we are living in,” Bezzina says. “I’m a huge supporter of Circa and have been working with their artistic director Yaron Lifschitz for many years. He is devastated.”

“While Brisbane Festival is deeply disappointed with the decision to cancel Silver City we are in negotiations with other globally-recognised arts companies to present another interactive event that would wow audiences with colour and light. More details will be shared as soon as they can be announced.”

What might have been ... Circa’s Silver City was supposed to rise on the Rainforest Green at South Bank during Brisbane Festival but has now been cancelled

Bookings have been building for Silver City and other events including a new floating experience, Brisbane’s Art Boat. Luckily Louise Bezzina has designed a festival largely around home grown shows (many of them Covid safe) and local talent which will help it weather the vagaries of the pandemic.

Brisbane Festival will contact all Silver City ticketholders to inform them of the cancellation. Ticketholders will be issued a full refund.

A Brisbane Festival spokesman thanked ticketholders for their understanding and patience in the event cancellation process and hoped to welcome them to another event in the 2021 program. More information will be available soon.

brisbanefestival.com.au