Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

"Thanks for the ride!" They jump into your passenger seat. They've roped you into collecting yet another Facebook marketplace purchase for the growing collection of eclectic sculptures that's threatening to take over the front porch of their share-house. "I made this last night!" they say, tossing a tape into your lap. It's labelled NONSTOP 2021 in orange highlighter. You always thought their mixtapes would make great festival lineups...

an irl mixtape by your chaotic friend

Transforming the cavernous upstairs Barrel Hall of Newstead Brewing Co. Milton into a festival wonderland with two stages, an art gallery, an indoor beer garden and music more, Dots+Loops Nonstop returns for a 6-hour celebration of Australia's most exciting and adventurous post-genre artists.

Shannon Ruska opens the festival with a Welcome To Country, and our First Nations partner Cre8tive Nations takes over the stage to feature some of their incredible artists. Shoeb Ahmad weaves a patchwork of sampladelic soundscapes of vocals, guitar and electronics. Madeleine Cocolas shares expansive lush soundworlds in the first of two sets collaborating with artists from our Performance Fellowship program, and cellist David Moran continues the energetic momentum with a riotous set featuring a new work from our inaugural Composition Fellow Oliver Brown. Erik Griswold and Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra present the highly-anticipated Brisbane premiere of Hollows out of Time, a kaleidoscopic journey through percussive prepared piano to blues, film noir and Renaissance counterpoint. Cameron Bower delivers an uncanny experience lingering somewhere between an “ambient tapestry” and a “volcanic eruption” (Chris Cobcroft, 4ZZZ), followed by an explosion of a different variety in the toe-tapping raucousness of Cigány Weaver. Expo 88 is joined by our Performance Fellows to keep the genre mashup going with infectious jazz-infused electronica, before DJ Avaxa sends the party off into the night.

Alongside this musical smorgasbord, the festival features visual art curated by The Third Quarter, a multidisciplinary installation from local artists Tim Tate and Zenobia Frost commissioned by Dots+Loops, and a special exhibition of photography in memory of Cre8tive Nations’ co-founder, LaVonne Bobongie.

In between it all, grab a bite to eat, sample some of the beers brewed just downstairs, or just relax and catch up with your fellow festival-goers. There’s something for all adventurous ears and eyes at Nonstop.