Chart-topping musician Patience Hodgson pulls out her Super Secret Diary and invites some of her closest musical mates sky-high for a ritzy Brisbane Festival party: Raise The Roof - Loverpalooza, that promises to be as big on heart as it is on glitter.
Doused in tinsel from head-to-toe, Patience collaborates with sparkle sister Rachel Burke to create a razzle-dazzle rooftop where music, art, love and chance joyously intersect beneath the mirrorball for a moment in time."It's just a big undertaking, putting on a show in a place that doesn't normally have them," Patience says of the understated space that is the Emporium Hotel's Terrace Rooftop Bar, where her wildly glitzy and lavishly pink show, Loverpalooza, takes place in September.
"If you're a punter coming to a gig in an unusual place, you get there and you don't realise just how much goes on behind the scenes – it's really ambitious, but it's going to be so much fun.
"The Brisbane Festival idea of rooftop parties is so ambitious, because they're transforming a place that does not do these kinds of events, into venues that are going way out of their comfort zone.
"I think mine is particularly a lot of work, turning the Terrace into a place where live music happens. I'm so pleased to have people around me that know what they're doing!"
Loverpalooza is far removed from anything Patience – best known as the frontwoman for The Grates – has done before. "There's still live music. It's going to be a curated covers playlist.
"The night is going to be in three acts; the space will be hugely immersive [and] will look like the Emporium has been totally transformed into feeling you've arrived at a different rooftop. Lots of tinsel, my colour is pink, which I'm thrilled about, and my theme is love."
Loverpalooza, then, is a production made up of three acts, divvying up conversations, performances and audible delights that address different styles of love.
The first, according to Patience, is 'Talking Love', where she and several special guests will talk all things love, all in good fun. The second act, dubbed 'Singing Love', is where a band comprising Patience and some good mates in the music scene curate their favourite love songs.
"I want it to be really nuanced," Patience says, "because love is messy and complicated. You've got so many different types of love – friendship love, your love for your children, the love that's lost; [there's] a whole world of music out there that's been written about love."
At the time of writing, Patience was locking in special guests for 'Singing Love', drawn from her vast circle of musical mates from across the country.
By bringing different types of people into her show, Patience is cultivating a host of varied experiences of love. "Totally! I want them to bring their experiences, something they can share with the audience."
Patience can't begin to discuss what's in store in Act Three without giggling veraciously. "Act Three is 'Making Love'," she titters. "I just want everyone to know, if they want to be married by myself on the night, this is what's happening!
"Of course, it's not going to be completely legal wedding, but that makes it so much better! The best weddings I've ever been to are the ones that aren't legal. Throughout the night, we want people to come up and say: 'Yes, we want to get married.'"
Of the show as a whole, Patience says there's no particular dedication to present any one style of visual art. "It will be visual in the sense that there will be a lot for people to see. I want there to be audience involvement. I want people to come on stage and let people choose throughout the night from the vows we've written.
"Maybe we just marry people who haven't even met throughout the entire night yet, and just finish the night with two or three big songs, after we've made a giant love heart pinata and had everyone smash it!"
Raise The Roof - Loverpalooza takes place as part of Brisbane Festival at The Terrace Rooftop Bar at Emporium Hotel 23 September.
