If you enjoy the Brisbane Festival, you will love the Gold Coast's Bleach Festival because they have the wonder of the beach and waves as a backdrop.
If you have been, it's back from March 31 to April 16, all over the Gold Coast.
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Bleach festival: highlights reel
The Gold Coast's biggest arts and cultural festival returns to the streets and beaches from March 31 to April 16, 2017.
If you have never been to Bleach; imagine this: music, circus, theatre, cabaret – both naughty and nice – art installations, sculpture, foolishness, dance and decadence all shaken together with the sands of the Gold Coast.
For the first time, the Spiegletent will set up in Broadbeach where production house Strut and Fret put on their burlesque show Blanc de Blanc.
![Bleach Festival performers (from left) Tristan Meecham, Jacob Hunt, director Louise Bezzina and Frank Enstein actor ...](/web/20170201232929im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/h/2/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3hhl.png/1485985774578.jpg)
Blanc de Blanc has one set of shows for grown-ups and a separate family show where everyone can see a mix of circus, cabaret, mine and acrobatics over 23 performances.
The Bleach Festival – like the Brisbane Festival – gets its acts to go outside the normal venues; to the beaches, the headlands, the theatres and even to the Broadbeach Cats AFL locker room.
'It's a festival of place," Bleach's artistic director Louise Bezzina said.
"And it's a real honour to be working on the Gold Coast right now with a growing youthful and energetic arts community who are not afraid to take risks," she said.
![Bleach Festival Gold Coast at Burleigh.](/web/20170201232929im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/h/5/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3hhl.png/1485985774578.jpg)
"And I guess they share a sense of inspiration from our physical surroundings."
That means performances at 20 different locations around the Gold Coast, from the Coolangatta Beach to Varsity Lakes, to parks, to the Gold Coast Coast's Griffith University campus and Surfers Paradise's Cavill Mall.
![Bleach Festival trampolinist Jacob Hunt upside down in Surfer's Paradise](/web/20170201232929im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/h/2/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3hhl.png/1485985774578.jpg)
Here's a quick taste:
The Saltwater Sessions at the Coolangatta foreshore feature Angus Stone, Ash Grunwald, Tia Gostelow and Emily Wurramara from March 31.
![Bleach Festival Gold Coast - Blanc de Blanc adult abaret](/web/20170201232929im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/h/5/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3hhl.png/1485985774578.jpg)
Closeby is the performance of Churaki Hill, where projections of "ocean men and women" transform into surfing legends.
You can see Frank Enstein, the newest re-imagining of Mary Shelley's classic tale, where filmmaker Daniel Monks surrounds himself with dancers and monsters from the Gold Coast/Berlin based music and theatre group, The Farm.
Frank Enstein starts on March 31 at the Gold Coast Arts Centre, before heading to Perth's Underground Theatre.
Visual artist Amanda Parer has taken up the challenge of illuminating Varsity Lakes with giant humanoids, she has dubbed the Fantastic Plastic giants.
There's a wave of different music events over the fortnight from the relaxed pop funk of Bobby Alku to more hypnotic electronica.
On a different footing is a story about little town rivalries and big football dreams, something close to home in rugby league and AFL circles.
Zeal Theatre has put together a story called The Forwards, described as a tragic-comedy.
It starts at Griffith University's The Uni Bar on March 31 and – as I mentioned above – shifts for three shows (March 6 to 8) at the Broadbeach Cats Football Club's locker room.
There's plenty of circus and cabaret, rock and roll and performances to enjoy.
If you don't find something you like, you didn't try hard enough.
Take a dive in here and begin to explore.
The Bleach Festival is backed by Arts Queensland, Gold Coast City Council and Events Queensland.
It is run by Bleached Arts Limited, a not-for-profit group.