The BLEACH* Festival returns this month, taking over the Gold Coast’s beaches, parks, gardens and abandoned buildings.

BLEACH* Festival CEO and Artistic Director Rosie Dennis. Photo © Artwork Agency

Like most arts events, the turbulence of 2020 has made it a challenge to program. “COVID has impacted our program in lots of different ways from programming entirely Queensland based artists, to shorter lead times for festival delivery, to flexible capacities and staging that allow us to expand and contract our audience capacity inline with changing social distancing restrictions,” CEO and Artistic Director Rosie Dennis tells Limelight.

It’s Dennis’s first program at the helm and it will feature work by 204 artists and more than 214 unique arts experiences.

“This year’s program is very much about starting conversations with a new audience,” she says, “whether that’s at Burleigh Heads with Luther Cora’s Gathering, which plays three times a day, every day of the festival, or our Festival Hub, set in the suburban neighbourhood of Chevron Island and inviting audiences into our pop-up venue set within a street of suburban houses.”

The festival will feature a number of musical highlights across its 11 days. “It’s fabulous to be...