Friday · Optional Opener
Vintage cinema feel — likely back at Majestic Theatre Pomona. Friday is the soft start: one film, atmospheric, in the haunted 100-year-old cinema.
Year 1 · October 2028
Dark Carnival
The main festival lands October 2028. The carnival come alive after dark — sideshow gone wrong, fairground horror taking over Nambour Showgrounds for one weekend.
What It'll Feel Like.
Rolling fog through pavilions and arena. Lantern lighting, warm amber. Brazier flame at transition points. Hand-painted carnival broadside posters. Vintage calliope music subverted under the films. By peak Saturday night, the showgrounds is a fully realised dark-carnival world — closer to walking into Carnival of Souls than into a film festival.
The Films.
A programming strand drawn from the carnival-horror canon, plus contemporary horror with sideshow and fairground themes. Working list:
- Freaks · 1932
- Carnival of Souls · 1962
- The Funhouse · 1981
- Something Wicked This Way Comes · 1983
- Nightmare Alley · 1947 and 2021
- Plus shorts, plus contemporary features, plus Australian indie horror — the full programme drops closer to the date.
The Live Performance.
Fire breathers, sword swallowers, contortionists, glass walkers, dark cabaret dancers. Anchor arena performances every ninety minutes through Saturday evening, with roaming sideshow figures, fortune tellers, and period-styled barkers threading through the vendor market.
Running the whole thing: a costumed carnival ringmaster — top hat, tailcoat, deadly serious. He's been doing this longer than you have, and he absolutely will single you out of the audience if you make eye contact.
Saturday Sunset · The Opening Ceremony.
Every Sunshine Ghost Festival officially opens at sunset on Saturday. The Ringmaster takes the arena stage, the braziers light, and the festival's first proper theatrical moment plays out in front of everyone. From that point on, the showgrounds is a different place.
What exactly happens in the ceremony is part of the experience — we don't preview it. Show up to find out.
The Shape of the Weekend.
Saturday · Main Day at Nambour
Daytime is the warm-up — vendors open, shorts blocks, panels, workshops. Sunset is when the festival really starts: the Ringmaster takes the stage, the braziers light, and the opening ceremony plays out. Peak from 7pm to midnight. Late-night programming for the brave continues into the small hours.
Sunday · Closer at Mooloolaba
Morning at Nambour for the closing feature. Afternoon shuttle to the coast. Sunday evening, on the Mooloolaba beachfront: the carnival has spilled onto the beach. Lanterns on the sand. Fog at the waterline. Sideshow performers wandering. You go home from this one tired.
This Is Eighteen Months Out. Lock It in Early.
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