Brisbane's Le Festival is turning Roma Street Parkland into a slice of the French countryside

Brisbane is about to smell like fresh baguettes and cheap champagne for an entire weekend, and honestly, it is about time.

Le Festival returns to Roma Street Parkland from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 July, this year built around a Pique Nique theme, which is exactly the excuse Brisbane needed to spend a winter weekend outdoors pretending it is somewhere in the French countryside. Friday runs 4pm to 10pm, Saturday stretches from 8am to 10pm, and Sunday wraps up 8am to 5pm, so there is genuinely no excuse for missing it entirely.

The French market is the heart of it, stalls packed with the flavours, aromas and colours of France rather than the usual generic festival food truck line up. There are Masterclasses running throughout the weekend too, proper deep dives into French cuisine, wine and the art of pairing one with the other, for anyone who wants to leave knowing more than they did about why a specific cheese belongs with a specific glass.

On the entertainment side, Mzaza headline with their blend of French, Balkan and Mediterranean sound, which is a genuinely unexpected combination for a Brisbane park in the middle of winter. If that is a bit too refined for your taste, there is also a high energy Daft Punk tribute act on the bill, because apparently nobody can run a French themed event in 2026 without at least one nod to the robots.

There is a children's corner if you are dragging the family along, and a French bar if you are very much not dragging the family along. Either version of this weekend works.

Tickets are cheap, starting around $10, which is a genuinely absurd price for a weekend that basically teleports you into a French market town without the twenty four hour flight or the jet lag. Bookings are required through Oztix, and given how quickly Brisbane's better winter events have been selling out this year, sorting tickets now rather than the week of is the smarter play.