A sound sculpture in a Townsville garden, an audio walk beside a creek and an installation inside an Ingham house are part of a festival that refuses to stay in one town. Updated September 2026 PUNQ Festival is spreading contemporary art across four very different North Queensland settings: Townsville, Magnetic Island, Hinchinbrook and Charters Towers.
Most people describe the Sunshine Coast through its daylight routines: surf checks at dawn, school pickups, market mornings and early dinners with the shutters down by ten. The assumption is that culture lives elsewhere and the coast is where you come to reset afterward. Compared to the Gold Coast, it’s often framed as the natural