Jessica Mauboy Brings 'The Story Of Me' to Clancestry

Some festivals you attend. Clancestry is one you sit inside for a while. It's QPAC's celebration of First Nations music, dance, theatre and storytelling, and this year it hands Jessica Mauboy a Concert Hall and ten days of company worth keeping. I've seen Mauboy live exactly once, and I spent the encore explaining to my two-year-old that this was A Moment. She was unmoved. Her loss.

The facts, up top

• What: Clancestry, QPAC's First Nations arts and culture festival
• When: 30 July to 8 August 2026, ten days across QPAC and South Bank, Brisbane
• The one everyone's circling: Jessica Mauboy, 'The Story Of Me', QPAC Concert Hall, Saturday 1 August 2026
• Also on: Yothu Yindi, Troy Cassar-Daley, Dale Woodbridge-Brown's circus show, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, and the Ya'Djin Spirit Women dance, theatre and film piece
• Booking: through QPAC

Mauboy's show is billed as ballads, classics and anthems laid over untold tales and anecdotes. In her words: "It feels like gathering, sharing and honouring stories. To bring 'The Story Of Me' into that space feels really meaningful." Bring tissues. I say that as a man who once welled up at a wedding montage for people I'd met that afternoon.

Ten days is a lot. Plan a little.

Clancestry isn't a one-night gig, it's a program, so a couple of honest pointers:

• Book the headline shows first. A Jessica Mauboy Concert Hall date on a Saturday is the kind of thing that goes early. Lock it in, then build the rest of your festival around it.
• Leave room for the small stuff. The workshops, the theatre pieces and the family events are where festivals like this actually get under your skin. The big name gets you in the door, the rest is why you remember it.
• Bring the kids to the family-friendly sessions. There's plenty on that isn't a late night, which my toddler would tell you is the correct kind of event if she had the vocabulary.

Reading this from the wrong city?

'The Story Of Me' keeps touring after Brisbane. No matter where you are, Mauboy's coming somewhere near you before the year's out:

Clancestry is the sort of weekend that leaves you quieter on the drive home, in the good way. Get your tickets to the big ones early, wander into something you'd never have picked, and let the stories do the rest. That's the whole story of it.