Brisbane Entertainment Centre Archives

Boondall To Host Massive Attack On Long-Awaited Australian Tour

After 16 years away from Australian stages, Massive Attack will return with a Brisbane performance at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall.

A Rare Brisbane Stop For Massive Attack

Massive Attack’s Australian tour will include three headline shows, with Brisbane listed alongside Sydney and Melbourne.

The Brisbane performance is scheduled for Thursday, 06 August 2026, at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. The event is listed for 8:00pm, subject to change.

The show places the Queensland stop in Boondall, giving audiences from Albany Creek, Brisbane’s north and surrounding areas access to the group’s first Australian tour since 2010. The venue sits about 16 kilometres north of Brisbane’s CBD and about eight kilometres north of Brisbane’s domestic and international airports.

From Bristol To International Recognition

Massive Attack began in Bristol in 1988, founded by Robert “3D” Del Naja, Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, Adrian “Tricky” Thaws and Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles. The group currently consists of Del Naja and Marshall.

The collective became closely associated with trip-hop, combining hip-hop rhythms, soul elements, dub bass and atmospheric electronic production. Their 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, is often cited as a major work in the genre’s emergence.

The album included Unfinished Sympathy, which became one of Massive Attack’s best-known tracks and reached number one on the Dutch Top 40.

Albums That Shaped The Set-Up For Boondall

After Blue Lines, Massive Attack released Protection in 1994, followed by Mezzanine in 1998.

Mezzanine became the group’s first number one album on the UK Albums Chart and included Teardrop, later recognised by many listeners as the opening theme for the American television series House.

The group later released 100th Window in 2003 and Heligoland in 2010. Across those five studio albums, Massive Attack has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine appear on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The group has also worked with recurring guest vocalists including Horace Andy, Shara Nelson, Tracey Thorn, Elizabeth Fraser, Sinéad O’Connor, Damon Albarn and Hope Sandoval.

Their awards include a Brit Award for Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards and two Q Awards.

Tickets for the Boondall show are available through Ticketek. Patrons have been advised to avoid unauthorised resale websites because tickets purchased through those channels may be invalid.

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The concert is listed as an all-ages event, and all patrons must hold a valid ticket for entry. General admission standing floor patrons aged 15 years or under are recommended to be accompanied or supervised by an adult.

With only Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne listed for the Australian tour, the Boondall concert stands as the Queensland stop in Massive Attack’s return after more than a decade and a half.

Published 3-June-2026

PAW Patrol Live Tour Heads To Boondall At Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Photo Credit: Paw Patrol Live

PAW Patrol Live! “Race to the Rescue” is set to arrive in Boondall, with Brisbane Entertainment Centre included as part of the production’s 2026 Australian tour.

Brisbane Stop Confirmed In Boondall

The live stage show will be held at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall on Saturday 8 August 2026. Brisbane is one of four Australian locations included in the tour, alongside Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne.

The national run is scheduled from 25 July to 23 August 2026, with limited performances in each city.

PAW Patrol Boondall — Photo Credit: Paw Patrol Live

Stage Show Based On Television Series

The production is based on the animated children’s series PAW Patrol. The storyline centres on the Great Adventure Bay Race, where Mayor Goodway is missing, prompting Ryder and the pups to step in.

Characters including Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Rocky, Zuma and Everest work together to complete the rescue and take part in the race. The show presents a narrative focused on teamwork and problem-solving.

Brisbane Entertainment Centre — Photo Credit: Paw Patrol Live

Interactive Format For Audiences

The stage adaptation includes interactive elements, with audience participation encouraged through call-and-response segments. The production also incorporates theatrical sets and digital screens to represent locations from the television series.

Ticket Release And Presale Details

General public ticket sales are scheduled to open at 11 a.m. on Tuesday 31 March 2026, in local time. Prior to this, a CommBank Yello presale will run from 10 a.m. on Wednesday 25 March to 9 a.m. on Monday 30 March for the Brisbane event.

A TEG Life Like Touring presale is set from 11 a.m. on Monday 30 March to 10 a.m. on Tuesday 31 March. Ticket limits apply per transaction.

Ticket listings currently show two Brisbane sessions on 8 August, scheduled for 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall.

PAW Patrol Live — Photo Credit: Paw Patrol Live

Charity Partnership Included

The tour is linked with Assistance Dogs Australia, with donation collections planned during performances. The organisation supports people with physical disabilities, young people with autism and veterans with PTSD, and is marking 30 years of operation.

Global Production Background

PAW Patrol Live first launched in 2016 and has since been staged in more than 50 countries, with reported attendance reaching millions. Multiple versions of the production continue to tour internationally.

Outlook

The Boondall performance forms part of a four-city Australian schedule for PAW Patrol Live! “Race to the Rescue”. Ticket access will begin with presales in late March, ahead of the August event at Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Published 20-Mar-2026

What Could Replace the Brisbane Entertainment Centre After the 2032 Olympics?

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall is approaching the end of its run as a live entertainment venue, with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics expected to mark its final chapter, and debate is already building over what could rise on the 64-hectare site once the curtain comes down.

Read: Mumford & Sons To Perform At Boondall’s Brisbane Entertainment Centre In 2026

The centre has been a fixture of Queensland’s live entertainment scene since it first opened its doors in February 1986, drawing more than 19 million visitors over four decades. The venue is expected to host an Olympic event, European handball is the current frontrunner, and that occasion is broadly anticipated to be its last major booking. After that, the privately developed Gabba Arena is set to take over as the city’s leading indoor venue, leaving the Boondall site open to an entirely new purpose.

Urban planners and property developers say it is the kind of prospect that rarely presents itself. A senior planning director at Colliers said it is not often a site of this size becomes available as a single land parcel, connected to two train stations and the Gateway Motorway. She said she struggled to see any future in which the Entertainment Centre continues operating in its present form, and drew comparisons to the long-running community debate over the former Toombul shopping centre site, suggesting the Boondall conversation will generate no shortage of opinions.

The Queensland Land Activation Program, administered through Economic Development Queensland, has added momentum to that conversation by inviting private developers to put forward proposals for underutilised publicly owned land that could be converted to housing. According to industry observers, the Boondall site is a natural fit for that program.

An associate director at Urban Economics said developer interest in the site would be considerable, but argued the opportunity should not be viewed purely through a housing lens. He held up Brisbane Technology Park at Eight Mile Plains as a relevant precedent, a precinct that took shape over many years and now supports around 300 jobs per hectare through private investment. A similar employment-focused model, he suggested, could work well at Boondall once environmental constraints on the site are taken into account.

A director at planning consultancy URPS put forward a more ambitious vision still. He described the potential for what he called a subtropical garden suburb, a concept rooted in the garden city movement, which sought to combine the convenience of city living with meaningful access to green space and nature. Applied to Boondall, the concept would celebrate and respect the natural environment of the wetlands and open bushland adjoining the site.

Photo credit: Mark Ruffcut Anderson/Google Maps

After accounting for flood-prone and environmentally sensitive areas, he estimated somewhere between 20 and 27 hectares could realistically be developed, with capacity for as many as 2,500 dwellings at varying densities. The emphasis, he said, would be on creating a mixed and balanced community with access to employment, services and diverse housing, close to the natural environment.

Both planning experts agreed that the northern portion of the site, the bushland corridor between the venue and the Gateway Motorway, warrants careful protection. Development would be better concentrated toward the south, where land has already been cleared and sits largely above flood levels. That cleared land, as it happens, is the same expanse of car parks that has tested the patience of generations of concert and event patrons.

Sport and recreation also feature in the mix of possibilities. Both experts suggested the indoor sports centre that sits alongside the Entertainment Centre could reasonably be retained for community use. A proposal developed by Hockey Queensland in 2024 for a $58.25 million northern Brisbane facility, with three playing fields and seating for 1,500, has also been floated as a potential fit for the site, though Hockey Queensland has more recently turned its attention to the Gold Coast Hockey Centre ahead of the 2032 Games.

Legends Global, the company that has operated the Entertainment Centre from the outset, marked the venue’s 40th anniversary and pointed to its track record with pride, while acknowledging that decisions about what comes next belong to others.

No formal proposals have been submitted to the Land Activation Program for the site as yet. But the URPS director was firm on one point, whatever vision ultimately takes shape, it will need to be driven by clear public leadership rather than left entirely to market forces, given the scale of what is at stake and the lasting legacy that the 2032 Games should leave behind.

Read: From Boondall to the Big League: Rocco Zikarsky’s Journey to the NBA

For Albany Creek, Boondall and the communities that make up Brisbane’s northern corridor, the Entertainment Centre has long been part of the local fabric. What replaces it may define the area for decades to come.

Published 12-March-2026

Brisbane Entertainment Centre Turns 40 With 19 Million Fans, 2,875 Events and a World Ranking to Match

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall has marked 40 years of operation on 20 February 2026, having welcomed more than 19 million people through its doors across 2,875 events since opening night in 1986, and holding a Billboard Magazine ranking as the number one venue in Oceania and ninth in the world for its capacity category.

Four decades after ice skaters Torvill and Dean performed to a sold-out crowd of 10,000 on opening night, the entertainment centre that transformed what was a 64-hectare paddock in Boondall into Brisbane’s most significant indoor entertainment destination reaches its milestone in stronger shape than at any point in its history. The venue has delivered record-breaking years since emerging from the pandemic, and with Linkin Park, Mumford and Sons, Hilltop Hoods, Guy Sebastian and the Harlem Globetrotters all booked across the coming months, 2026 is already shaping as another standout year.

For the communities of Boondall, Nudgee, Zillmere, Carseldine and Albany Creek that have grown up around the venue across four decades, the entertainment centre has been a constant presence, a place where first concerts, family outings, school excursions and unforgettable nights out have accumulated across generations.

From Paddock to Global Top Ten

The 64-hectare Boondall site was first announced in 1983 as part of Brisbane’s Bicentenary Project and a broader push to strengthen the city’s bid for the 1992 Olympic Games. Brisbane architect Jacob de Vries designed the building in a star shape, although builders ultimately constructed only two of the four points. Watkins Pacific, now known as Watpac, completed the venue ahead of schedule at a cost of $71 million. The centre opened on 20 February 1986, with Torvill and Dean performing to a first-night crowd of 10,000, and ten additional shows attracting more than 100,000 people during the opening season alone.

Construction of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre — Photo Credit: Watpac

The ticket prices that night were $22.90 for adults and $15.90 for children. Forty years later, the entertainment centre holds a Billboard Magazine ranking as the best venue in Oceania and ninth globally in the 10,001 to 15,000 seat capacity category, a standing that reflects both the quality of its production infrastructure and the strength of Brisbane’s live entertainment market.

Six employees from the original 1986 team still work at the venue today. Queensland Leisure took on management of the entertainment centre just one month before it opened and has remained involved for four decades. The company now operates the venue under the Legends Global banner, formerly known as ASM Global, following a major international merger. Two of the original board members from 1986 remain connected to the operation.

The Acts, the Records, the Moments

The entertainment centre’s 40-year program has spanned international headliners including Prince, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Elton John, Metallica and Madonna alongside homegrown artists including Cold Chisel, Kylie Minogue, Keith Urban, Paul Kelly and Powderfinger, as well as family productions including Les Misérables, Disney on Ice and The Wiggles.

P!NK holds the record as the venue’s most frequent performer with 32 shows, including 11 in a single year in 2009. Metallica drew the largest single crowd in the venue’s history, with 14,454 fans in attendance in 2010. The entertainment centre has handled some of the heaviest touring productions in the industry, including How to Train Your Dragon which weighed 98 tonnes, and has accommodated as many as 35 trucks for a single show. From Leonard Cohen performing at 79 years old to JoJo Siwa taking the stage at 17, the venue has genuinely spanned generations of artists and audiences.

Brisbane Entertainement Centre — Photo Credit: Google Maps

Beyond concerts, the entertainment centre has been woven into Brisbane’s broader civic life in ways no one planned. It also operated as a mass vaccination hub during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and later served as a sandbag depot ahead of Cyclone Alfred in 2025. Producers filmed all three series of the original Australian Gladiators there in 1995, and organisers staged the Lions International Convention at the site. Over the years, the centre has also hosted conferences, gala dinners, religious conventions and trade shows, drawing millions more visitors beyond its ticketed events.

Meanwhile, the Sports Centre at the entertainment centre, which opened in 1997, has hosted approximately seven million people of its own. Boondall Railway Station opened in 1986 specifically to support access to the venue, and the 4,000-space supervised car park remains one of the largest single-venue parking facilities in Brisbane’s north.

A Full Circle Moment and What Comes Next

In one of the more poetic turns of the anniversary year, Torvill and Dean, who opened the entertainment centre on its very first night in 1986, returned to perform multiple shows in 2025, bringing the venue’s first four decades to a close in the company of the artists who began them.

The 40-day anniversary celebration running from 20 February includes a competition offering four groups of ten people the chance to attend an event of their choice across the next year, with entry by sharing a favourite entertainment centre memory on the venue’s Facebook page. Tickets must be used by 1 April 2027, and VIP parking, drinks and snacks are included for each winning group.

Upcoming shows at the entertainment centre include Linkin Park on 3 and 5 March, Hilltop Hoods, MGK, Mumford and Sons, Jimmy Carr, Carl Barron and the Harlem Globetrotters. The full event schedule and competition details are available at brisent.com.au.

Published 1-March-2026.

Measles Public Alert Issued After Brisbane Entertainment Centre Concert

Photo Credit: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Health authorities have issued a public alert after three people with confirmed measles attended a concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall on 24 October 2025.

Anyone who attended the Jelly Roll concert that evening may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus and should monitor for symptoms for up to three weeks from the date of exposure.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Catherine McDougall said the three infected individuals also visited multiple locations across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Wide Bay regions while they were unknowingly infectious.

Two additional measles cases have been confirmed this week in Central Queensland and the West Moreton regions, though these are unrelated to the concert exposure.

Dr McDougall explained that measles spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, making it extremely contagious.

“Symptoms usually start seven to 18 days after contact with an infected person, typically around day 10, but can sometimes take as long as three weeks,” Dr McDougall said.

She urged anyone who attended the 24 October concert to remain vigilant for symptoms over the coming weeks.

The illness typically begins with fever, tiredness, runny nose, cough and red, sore eyes. A few days later, a distinctive red, blotchy rash appears, usually starting on the face before spreading across the body.

Queensland has recorded 30 measles cases so far this year, with many linked to people returning from overseas travel. Dr McDougall said the potential for local transmission is a genuine concern.

Anyone experiencing symptoms should avoid public spaces and contact their GP or call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84) for advice. It’s important to phone ahead before visiting a medical centre or pathology service so staff can take appropriate precautions.

People who have received two doses of measles-containing vaccine or have previously had measles are unlikely to contract the disease even after exposure.

The MMR vaccine is provided free in Queensland and is available from GPs and community pharmacies. Children receive the vaccine at 12 months (MMR) and 18 months (MMRV) as part of the National Immunisation Program.

Dr McDougall emphasised that vaccination remains the most effective protection against measles.

“I encourage Queenslanders to make sure their vaccinations are up to date,” she said.

Queensland Health is maintaining an updated list of exposure sites and times on its website. Anyone who visited these locations during the specified periods should watch for symptoms and check their vaccination status.

For more information, visit the Queensland Health website or contact 13HEALTH for free health advice.

Published 12-November-2025