Four festive weekends each anchored with marquee shows will connect the 2022 Brisbane Festival, with 20 world premieres as well as more than half of the 500-odd performances offered free of charge.

Making the first of two program announcements about the festival, to be held from 2–24 September, Artistic Director Louise Bezzina said the expected focus on local artists would be augmented by interstate shows and six international works, “a treat” after the border closures of the last two years required programming to consist almost entirely of Queensland performers.

The Art Boat, an old working barge turned into a floating gallery, will again be waterborne along the Maiwar river, the barge this time featuring a new worked called The Spheres, a “celebration of harmony and joy”, by Brisbane-born artist Lindy Lee and an extension of her Moon in a Dew Drop survey at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in 2020.

Amalgamating sculpture, light and sound, The Spheres, which is the festival’s signature lead project, is a work inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher and...