BLEACH Festival opens with something no other tenant along this stretch of coast can walk to: a performer suspended above three tonnes of melting ice, on the sand beyond Viscount’s beachfront pathway and dunes, before most guests are even awake.
Dawn on the sand
THAW, created by Joshua Thomson for Legs On The Wall with an original score by Alaskan composer Matthew Burtner, plays Thursday 1 October at 5:00 am on the beachfront near Viscount. A performer suspended by crane loses balance and footing as the ice beneath them melts through sunrise, a free piece built around climate change. One audience member at an earlier Sydney showing summed it up plainly: “It’s reflective of the real world, what’s happening now. We have glaciers melting.” A second session runs Saturday 3 October at 11:30 pm at HOTA Lake Precinct, for anyone who’d rather trade the beach for the later, colder slot.
The rest of the eleven days, at a family pace
BEACON, HOTA’s Lakeside installation by artist Morag Myerscough and local group Everybody NOW!, runs the full eleven days of the festival, hand-painted by day, lit up by neon after dark, no set time to plan around. Lady Blackbird & Electric Fields play HOTA’s Outdoor Stage on Friday 2 October, free and ticketed, all ages, set up in the festival’s outdoor “Chill Out” picnic mode, kids under three don’t need a ticket at all. Electric Fields open, built around Zaachariaha Fielding, who sings partly in the traditional language of the Anangu people, a genuine talking point for a family visit. Both events fit around a family’s own pace better than a single big-night booking would, and Viscount’s tour desk can help sort tickets and directions before anyone leaves the building.
Two more, for later
SIX60 headline the Outdoor Stage on Saturday 3 October with support from Sub-Tribe, a bigger, later night out once the kids are old enough to stay with a sitter. No One Gets Out of Here Alive closes the festival at Theatre 1 the following weekend, 10 and 11 October, The Farm’s dance and music work carrying content notes for haze and nudity, best suited to a night without the family in tow.
Getting across to HOTA when the kids are older
Florida Gardens tram station, 500 metres from Viscount, is the fastest way north to Surfers Paradise, and the walk on from there, over Chevron Island and the Green Bridge, is flat enough for a pram the whole twenty minutes. Driving suits a family arriving with more gear; Viscount’s own undercover parking is free, one space per apartment at 1.95 m clearance, worth checking against the car before counting on one of HOTA’s free bays once the grounds fill up for the festival.
Back at Viscount
The heated pool holds 27°C year-round, fenced and ocean-facing, the right place to land after a dawn on the sand or a night at HOTA. The garden BBQ at ground level keeps the kids in view while dinner cooks, and the rooftop BBQ looks straight out over the Pacific for whoever’s still up once the younger guests are down. Strollers and board games are on hand for whichever afternoon turns into a stay-in one, and the welcome pack on arrival covers the first coffee before anyone’s found the nearest shop.
Pick your dates
A stay that opens on the Wednesday gives the whole family a slow start before the 5 am THAW performance, no one needing an alarm they’ll regret two days into the trip. Check-in runs 2 pm to 11 pm, so a late finish at HOTA afterwards is no trouble either, and check-out is by 10 am.
Find your dates on the calendar, or read more about the Superior 3 Bedroom Ocean View and the 2 Bedroom Ocean View. Anything added to the program between now and October shows up on the official BLEACH Festival site.
