An early morning ticket buying frenzy to be among the first to walk the Neville Bonner Bridge resulted in all 500 allocations being snapped up in 10 minutes when registration opened to the public today.
Most of the successful ticket registrations were from Brisbane but interest was high from across the country with people from Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast scoring tickets, as well as a handful going to those from as far afield as Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide.
The lucky 500 will get a sneak preview of the Brisbane River centrepiece and walk to the Lookout at the halfway mark of the 320m bridge, on the morning of Saturday 2 September, ahead of the Brisbane Festival opening night Riverfire spectacular.
The Star Entertainment Group CEO and Managing Director Robbie Cooke said, “We expected tickets to go quickly, but we are thrilled there was such overwhelming interest and excitement about the new bridge.”
“The lucky 500 who will walk to the Lookout at the halfway point will enjoy great views along the river across to South Bank and into the new Queen’s Wharf precinct and the CBD. It’s certainly a great location for photographs.”
“The Neville Bonner Bridge will change the cross-river connectivity of the city when it opens as part of the resort next year.”
The Neville Bonner Bridge, named in honour of Australia’s first federal Indigenous parliamentarian, touched down at Queen’s Wharf Brisbane on 27 February 2023 after two years of construction, completing the cross-river connection with South Bank and linking the city’s two largest lifestyle precincts.
The bridge is currently an exclusion zone at the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane end but will open fully as part of the $3.6b tourism precinct’s planned phased launch next April.
The striking bridge mast peaking at more than 75 metres above the river – the same height as the Story Bridge – was lit up for the first time on Wednesday 16 August for the Matildas’ FIFA World Cup semi-final appearance.
Once open, the pedestrian-only bridge will link South Bank to the dining and retail level of the new Queen’s Wharf entertainment and tourism resort with escalators and lifts through to William and George Streets.
It’s expected there will be 10,000 pedestrian crossings a day when the bridge opens to the public in 2024.
The bridge walk will take place between 10am and 12 noon on Saturday 2 September 2023.
There will be extensive road closures ahead of Brisbane Festival opening night so ticketholders are advised to check the best way to access the bridge event.
For more information:
Karryn Wheelans Head of Media, The Star Entertainment Group +61 431 151 009
Graham Witherspoon, Stakeholder & Communications Manager, Destination Brisbane Consortium, .
