Brisbane Festival ignites Botanic Gardens with fiery new experience

Riverfire won’t be the only fiery spectacle this Brisbane Festival.

The City Botanic Gardens will come alight with a new after-dark experience, transforming it into a sea of fire.

Afterglow will have its world premiere on Friday night and will run until 27 September. The 1.4-kilometre trail takes visitors through a maze of soundscapes, fire and art installations designed as a multisensory journey.

Behind the fire element of the installation is UK-based pyrotechnician Brian Thunder, who works globally with Culture Creative as a fire producer. Previously, he was a theatre-maker.

“Afterglow is different [to Culture Creative’s usual installations] because fire would usually make up about 10 per cent of those trails, but Afterglow has flipped that on its head, where about 90 per cent of what you’re going to see is live flame,” Thunder said.

A fire producer isn’t a title you stumble across on the regular, so how did Thunder make a name for himself in the industry?

“It’s definitely a niche profession, but so is being a theatre-maker,” he said.

“I’ve kind of had two precarious professions all my life, which kind of have managed to add up to a proper career.”

Another creative involved in the installation is First Nations artist Sam Harrison, who is behind the Fire & Flourish Lantern project.

A workshop where participants created their own artwork was held in July, and winning designs have been transformed into glowing lanterns that line part of the trail.

With the help of Aunty Kerry Charlton, a local Yuggera elder with a background in early childhood education, Harrison selected the lanterns featured in Afterglow.

“It was nice to have someone with that perspective [early childhood education] be part of the judging,” Harrison said.

“I was looking at it more from an artistic, colour and composition basis, where she was like, ‘this is a two-year-old that’s done this – it’s actually really impressive’.”

Other elements of Afterglow include Ba-nguru Milpa (Spiritual Awakening) by Shannon Ruska and Guy Webster, which marks the start of the trail. The installation is lit up with thousands of LEDs and candles accompanied by a story from Ruska, a Yuggera and Turrbal man.

Following that, the trail is marked with exhibitions including Meteor Walk by Steven Holmes from Filament Creative Studios and Fire Performance by Flux.

Afterglow is part of the Brisbane Festival program and will run until 27 September. Food and drink available for purchase at the entrance of the trail.

Sessions begin from 5.45pm with tickets starting at around $32 for adults and $26 for children.

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