If you’re planning a trip to Queensland’s capital (and the third-largest city in Australia), you’re in for a treat.
Brisbane is a place where several different elements come together to make up one of the most appealing tourist destinations in the country, if not the world, and consequently the city sees people return each year to soak up a little more of the fun. While you’re in the midst of buying travel insurance and plane tickets and booking your accommodation, we thought we’d take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about the culture in Brisbane. After all, the friendliness, vibrancy and laid-back nature of the locals are all a big part of what makes Brisbane so popular.
Friendliness and Hospitality
While Brisbane is a big city, it has the feel of a much smaller country town. It is often noted that the locals in Brisbane are more like country folk who find themselves in the midst of a thriving economic centre, but haven’t yet worked out that they’re supposed to be rude to each other. As a result, service in cafes and restaurants will be friendly but not fawning, people will stop to give you detailed directions, and locals you meet will be only too happy to stop and share a chat or swap a smile. After the recent Brisbane floods, which devastated the city, this friendliness and willingness to help one another became heartbreakingly obvious, as people who had never met each other opened up their homes and hearts and banded together as a city to clean up the mess Mother Nature had left behind.
Dance Music
Brisbane is a very young city, and one thing that the city’s youth are passionate about is their dance music. Brisbane has one of the most pumping dance music scenes anywhere in Australia, and the funky neighbourhood of Fortitude Valley is home to some fantastic clubs and talented DJs. A Friday or Saturday night will see youths roaming the streets, hitting club after club for a dance. At first, this seems much like any other city, but there’s something about the people of Brisbane’s passion that sets them apart—the average young person is incredibly knowledgeable about dance music genres and you get the feeling that it’s much more about the music here.
Sporting Culture
Another thing that gets the average Brisbanite’s blood pumping is the prospect of a sporting match. Whether it is Cricket, Rugby League or AFL, Suncorp Stadium hosts sporting matches all year around and its grandeur is certainly matched by the passion of the spectators who frequent it.
Whether you’re staying in a Brisbane serviced apartment, at a friend’s house or in a fancy hotel, your experience of Brisbane people will be relatively unchanging—they treat visitors with respect and openness, and the trademark Queensland smile that tells you that locals are well aware that they live in paradise.