When the Ekka Was Cancelled: COVID and the Limits of Annual Ritual
For only the third and fourth times in nearly 150 years, the Ekka did not happen. What COVID revealed about ritual, civic identity, and what Queensland loses when its oldest gathering goes silent.
The Ekka Showgrounds and Brisbane 2032: Queensland's Oldest Civic Event at the Olympic Site
For nearly 150 years, the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills has been the fixed address of Queensland's collective self. Now it is becoming an Olympic site — and the question of what endures matters deeply.
First Nations Culture at the Ekka: Indigenous Presence at Queensland's Great Gathering
For nearly 150 years, the Ekka has mirrored Queensland's relationship with itself. That mirror includes a First Nations dimension — colonial, contested, and increasingly reclaimed.
Why the Ekka Is Not Just an Agricultural Show: The Cultural Complexity of Queensland's Great Gathering
The Ekka began as a colonial exhibition in 1876, but across nearly 150 years it has become something far harder to define: a civic ritual, a memory machine, and Queensland's most layered cultural institution.
The Agricultural Competition at the Ekka: Where Queensland's Farmers Show Their Best
For nearly 150 years, the Ekka's agricultural competitions have done more than crown champions — they have anchored Queensland's identity as a farming state and held the city accountable to the land.
The Ekka: Queensland's Most Attended Annual Event and the Ritual That Unites the State
Every August, Queensland performs the same civic ritual it has observed since 1876 — gathering at the Brisbane Showgrounds for an event that is far more than a show.
The Ekka Public Holiday: The Day Brisbane Stops for a Show
Once a year, Brisbane observes a public holiday for an agricultural show. That this strikes no one as unusual says everything about the Ekka's place in Queensland civic life.
The Cattle at the Ekka: Queensland's Beef Industry on the Show Ring Stage
Once a year, in the middle of Brisbane, the scale and character of Queensland's beef industry is made legible. The show ring at the Ekka is where genetics, land and identity converge.
The Showbag Pavilion: The Ekka Ritual That Has Nothing to Do With Agriculture
The showbag began as a bag of coal handed to strangers in 1876. What it became — a uniquely Australian ritual of anticipation, nostalgia and identity — says everything about how culture outlasts commerce.
The Ekka as Queensland's Rural-Urban Meeting Place: When the Country Comes to the City
Every August, Queensland's deep geographic divide briefly dissolves at the Brisbane Showgrounds. The Ekka is not simply a show — it is the state's oldest civic negotiation between country and city.