Aussies are always dreaming up new ways to drink, and now Brisbane Festival is preparing to unleash its Gin & Tonic Cloud Experience, where punters can absorb gin & tonic vapour through their eyeballs and lungs.
Kicking off on 4th September, the Fear & Delight section of this year’s Brisbane Festival will play host to the first installation of the Gin & Tonic Cloud Experience in the Southern Hemisphere.
Devised by the team at Bompas & Parr, Brisbane Festival organisers call the experience “a gin and tonic based weather system for your tongue”, and while it sounds like a refreshing take on the usual drinking techniques, the festival will be making sure that people breathe responsibly.
As the Courier Mail reports, Brisbane Festival Director Scott Maidment has defended the Gin & Tonic Cloud’s upcoming appearance at the event, after health experts criticised the attraction.
Mr Maidment has told the AAP the Gin & Tonic Cloud is meant to be a sensory experience, and not a way to get drunk.
According to Mr Maidment, a person would need to stand in the cloud room for 40 minutes to absorb the equivalent of a large gin & tonic, but people won’t be staying for that long.
“It’s actually healthier for you they say, because it’s not affecting your liver,” Mr Maidment says. “It’s also about tasting the juniper berries and things like that that are in gin and tonic.”
Professor Jake Najman from the Univeristy of Queensland’s Drug Research and Education Centre says little is known about the health effects of breathing in alcohol.
“It’s not a good idea because what you’re doing is you’re inhaling and rapidly absorbing a toxic chemical, which is carcinogenic,” he says.
Either way, punters are sure to be lining up to give Brisbane Festival’s Gin & Tonic Cloud Experience a try between the 4th and 21st September, before the entire festival wraps up on 26th September.
For more information, visit the Brisbane Festival website.
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