‘Wouldn’t be where I am today’: Brisbane Festival’s Louise Bezzina on the moment that changed her career

There was a turning point that led Louise Bezzina to her dream job as the artistic director of the Brisbane Festival.

Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina. Picture: Liam Kidston

This article was produced in partnership with Griffith University for its 50th anniversary.

The call to the arts is often heard young.

So it was for Brisbane Festival artistic director, Louise Bezzina.

“I loved dancing pretty much as soon as I could walk and my mum had me in dance school from the age of four,” she says.

“I danced all the way through high school and found it was a really great way to express myself. I had a lot of energy as a child, I was always putting on performances and productions.”

Growing up in Mackay in Central Queensland, Bezzina, 43, signed up for anything and everything she could that was performance related – rock eisteddfods, choir, speech and drama, school concerts, the annual local Rock Pop Mime event and more.

“I did liturgical dancing at school as well,” she guffaws. “Anything that had any kind of sense of creativity or movement I was involved with. Nothing else felt right to me outside of the arts, and dance in particular was my favourite.”

At home, she honed her directorial skills by casting herself and her younger sister, Natalie, in elaborate household productions.

“I’d get the groceries out of the pantry and set up a cafe and sell things back to my parents, and make my sister wear whatever costume and do whatever dance moves I felt she needed to do. She was completely bossed around by her big sister,” she says.

Bezzina’s parents didn’t work in the arts – her father, Louis, was a barber and Olympic cyclist for Malta while her mother, Joan, was a bank teller – but they enjoyed taking their little girls to shows that would roll into town.

“Queensland Ballet was always a highlight and we used to get Arts Council theatre shows coming through – I remember always loving those. I have fond memories of seeing the local musical theatre players doing productions and we would go to any big touring performances, all your typical kind of regional performing arts centre fare, like Irish dancing and whatever else,” she says.

Brisbane Festival Director Louise Bezzina. Picture Lachie Millard

Little did Bezzina know that her childhood experiences were laying the foundation for what would become her hugely successful career in the arts.

It didn’t happen overnight and it took a bit of figuring out along the way. Encouraged by her parents to go to university, Bezzina moved to Brisbane, aged 17, to start a journalism degree at Griffith University.

“Because I was a creative I think having the grounding of a degree provided some comfort to them,” she says.

At an event during her first year at university, Bezzina got chatting to a lecturer teaching drama and education about a new degree Griffith was starting – Australia’s first Bachelor of Applied Theatre.

“He was telling me all about it and he said look, you’re going to have to audition and it’s very holistic but boutique … it’s sort of covering a lot of territory and offering a range of insights and skills into theatre,’’ she says.

“That really resonated with me and I went, ‘that’s it’.’’

Ahead of the start of last year’s Brisbane Festival, festival artistic director, Louise Bezzina with performers at Southbank, Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Bezzina auditioned, got in, then a year later took a gap year to travel around Europe. It was the trip of a lifetime, packed with adventure and self-discovery, and it fuelled her fire to complete her degree and pursue a career in the arts.

Back at university, a lecturer encouraged her to shift her focus from performing to directing. By the end of her degree, she was tossing up between pursuing a career in either theatre directing or festival directing.

“For my final piece of theatre direction at uni, I didn’t want to do it in the main theatre at Mount Gravatt. I asked if I could present mine in a bar in the Valley and they were really encouraging,’’ she says.

Louise Bezzina in 2013 when she was directing the Bleach Festival on the Gold Coast. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“That’s when I was able to test out some of my thinking and ideas around doing things site specific. Without a doubt, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for some extraordinary educators I had at Griffith.’’

Brisbane Festival also played a big role in her decision.

“I remember seeing some extraordinary performances that the Brisbane Festival had put on, particularly all the contemporary dance that really, really inspired me,’’ she says.

“It was my dream to become the artistic director of Brisbane Festival.’’

After landing the role of artistic director for the Mackay Festival of Arts straight out of university at the young age of 23, Bezzina worked as a producer for Brisbane Festival and then as program manager for Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts.

In 2012, she founded the hugely successful Bleach Festival on the Gold Coast and, in 2020, she took up the top job of artistic director of Brisbane Festival.

She is the first female, the only Queenslander and the youngest to do so. Contracted until 2026, she will have directed more Brisbane Festivals than any other artistic director by the end of her tenure.

To this day, she can barely believe her dream came true. As for what comes next, she’ll know the call when she hears it. ■

Artistic alumni

● Griffith University is home to three iconic creative and performing arts institutions: Queensland College of Art and Design, Griffith Film School, and Queensland Conservatorium.

● Griffith partners with cultural institutions including QPAC, Queensland Ballet, and the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival, offering students opportunities to engage with world-class performances, gain hands-on industry experience and expand their creative networks.

● High profile alumni include Bluey creator Joe Brumm; musicians and ARIA award winners Dami Im, Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan, Joff Bush, Megan Washington and William Barton; Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina; musical theatre star Shubshri Kandiah; Pub Choir creator Astrid Jorgensen; Archibald Prize finalists Michael Zavros, Monica Rohan and Julie Frager; leading First Nations artists Tony Albert, Tracey Moffat and Dylan Mooney; Miles Franklin and Walkley Award winner Melissa Lucashenko; and animator and Academy Award nominee Lachlan Pendragon.