On 9 Sep 2026, I gave a Speech on Alive In The Sunshine
Transcript:
Ms WATSON-BROWN:
This Saturday just passed, my team and I, along with 100 Greens volunteers, put on a huge free community festival in Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in my electorate of Ryan.
We called it Alive in the Sunshine.
It featured dozens of amazing community groups, artists, thinkers, entertainers, musicians, campaigners and small businesses.
Close to 5000 people came across the 5 hours of the festival.
Some people might ask what a politician is doing putting on a festival – and I want to answer that. But first I want to say a few thank yous.
Firstly, thank you to the Mt Coot-tha Gardens staff and volunteers. You make this beautiful, iconic, precious part of Brisbane all the more beautiful, iconic and precious.
Next I want to thank Lachy, Robyn, Rach, Hannah and Berta – the key team who pulled this whole thing together.
Dedicated, passionate, clever, inventive, resourceful, tenacious – you make me proud.
Next I want to thank every Greens volunteer who dedicated their time. The lifeblood of the movement for change.
I wish I could thank every single group or individual who contributed by name – but I would need an hour long speech for that. So. Just. Thank you. You all give me hope.
I finally want to thank 8 Ball Aitken, Moon Boots, and the Steele Syndicate and all the artists for bringing the great tunes and vibes.
Now to answer the question: what was a politician doing putting on a free festival? Don’t I have more important things to do?
My answer is - no. There is nothing more important.
The challenges facing society over the coming years and decades will only be met and overcome by rebuilding the social fabric and breaking with decades of neoliberal individualism, isolation and low expectations.
Climate change, AI, geopolitical rivalries and war, economic crises – I’m not saying we fix all these by throwing festivals.
But I am saying that if we don’t rebuild a sense of collective life, our children’s and grandchildren’s lives will be harsher, less joyful, more precarious.
Every time a festival closes, every time public space is privatised, every time housing becomes expensive and inaccessible,
every time our collective natural heritage is commercialised or despoiled,
it renders us all more atomised, more powerless against the forces of those who control our economy for their private profit.
But.
Every time we come together like at Alive in the Sunshine, we gain confidence in ourselves, and gain more capacity to build together that better future we all deserve.