It was designed in a postwar modern style, similar to its namesake, the Royal Festival Hall in London.

[1] Like similar venues in other Australian cities, Festival Hall originally had been built as a boxing stadium,[3] but as the popularity of boxing and wrestling waned after the introduction of television, it began to be used more often for other forms of entertainment, including the imported American sports craze "Roller Derby", and as a venue for concerts and theatrical presentations.

[5] Brisbane Festival Hall hosted performances for virtually every major tour by visiting overseas artists.

The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Rick Wakeman, Ike & Tina Turner, The American Globe Trotters, T Rex, Glenn Campbell, Little Richard, Sherbert.

Other performers who entertained at Festival Hall include The Bee Gees, Ray Charles, The Easybeats, The Kinks, The Seekers, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Osibisa, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, Alice Cooper, Slade, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, The Ramones, Bob Marley & the Wailers (18 April 1979), Phil Collins, Gary Numan, The Police, INXS, Madness, The Cure, Public Image Limited, Cheap Trick, Talking Heads, Squeeze, B52s, XTC, Magazine, Elvis Costello, Human League, Psychedelic Furs, Hoodoo Gurus, Nirvana, Ravi Shankar, Jane's Addiction, Sonic Youth, Pantera, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Ozzy Osbourne, Lemonheads, Faith No More, Posies, You Am I, Powderfinger, Moby, Groove Armada, Stone Roses, Björk, Sex Pistols, The Prodigy, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Public Enemy, Regurgitator, Portishead, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Blondie.