Best of Queensland Experience 2026: Five Years Running
It's official. Paint Juicy has been named a Best of Queensland Experience winner for 2026. That's the fifth year in a row. 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and now 2026. Five for five.
Cue the confetti, the mild crying, and a very dramatic high-five between Trent and James.
We were not expecting to write this post in 2026 the way we wrote it in 2022. Back then, the recognition felt like a fluke. A nice fluke, but still a fluke. By 2024 we were starting to think it might be a pattern. Now, with five in a row, it's officially a pattern, and we couldn't be prouder.
What Best of Queensland Experience actually is
Quick refresher in case you've never heard of it. Best of Queensland Experience is run by Tourism and Events Queensland, the state government tourism body. It is not a self-nominated award. It's not a popularity contest. It's an annual assessment based on real visitor reviews, real customer feedback, and how consistently an operator delivers across the year.
Operators don't put themselves forward. The data does the talking. Reviews on Google, on TripAdvisor, customer survey scores and a bunch of other quality signals get pulled together, and the operators that make the cut get to wave the badge for the year.
To be recognised once is a good year. To be recognised five years in a row says we're not just having one good run. We're showing up every session, every state, with the same energy.
If you want the full story behind the recognition, head over to our shiny little brag page. It's the corner of the website where we pin the receipts on the fridge.
Five years, five awards, zero flukes
Five years of guests walking out happy, mid-laugh, with a painting tucked under the arm and a singalong still rattling around in their head. Five years of hens nights, birthdays, girls nights, work parties, sisters trips and "we just need to get out of the house" Tuesdays.
None of it was flukey. The recognition keeps coming back because the room keeps coming back. People book once, then book again, then book the friend who refused to come the first time, then book a hens for their cousin, then come along to a Christmas party at work. That's the loop. That's why the badge sticks.
The top two words in our reviews
If you scroll through our Google reviews, two words come up more than any others. Fun. Atmosphere. Not "lovely art class". Not "very informative". Fun, and atmosphere.
That's the whole brief, honestly. We never set out to teach polite watercolour. We set out to throw a party with paintbrushes in it. Five Best of Queensland Experience recognitions later, it turns out you lot agree.
A massive thank you
Five years running as a Best of Queensland Experience.
We are genuinely grateful for this one. Thank you to every guest who has booked, sung too loud, painted something questionable, brought their friends, left a review, told someone about us, or come back for another round of organised chaos.
And a huge thank you to our team, our singers, our artists, our venues, and everyone who helps us keep Paint Juicy moving across Queensland and beyond.
We never set out to be a quiet little paint class, and clearly, you lot were happy about that.
Thank you for backing us, laughing with us, and keeping the seats full. We appreciate it more than we'll say.
We were never going to be a quiet paint class
Some paint and sip places are designed to be calm. Soft music, structured instruction, polite chitchat about brushwork. Beautiful. Lovely. Totally fine. Not us.
Paint Juicy sessions sound like a room full of mates at the pub who happen to have canvases in front of them. Big choruses on cue. Half the room singing while the other half paints, and a third group somewhere in the middle doing both badly. Trivia between paint layers because that's how you stop boredom and let the paint dry at the same time. Strangers swapping snacks like they've known each other for a decade. Phones out for canvas reveals. Laughing first, painting second.
That's not a happy accident. That's the whole design. The five Best of Queensland Experience recognitions aren't telling us we run the most polished paint and sip in the country. They're telling us we deliver the best girls night, hens night, birthday night, team night, mum night, "I forgot what fun felt like" night that finishes with a souvenir on canvas.
Year five, by the numbers
Year five is shaping up bigger than any of the four before it. January 2026 was our biggest sales month ever, which broke the seasonal pattern we'd been used to for years. New regions are firing. Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, and the Northern Territory as a whole are all booking like the next round of tickets is the last round of tickets.
Hens parties are sold out weeks ahead. Bottomless brunches usually disappear within hours of going live. We're doing more private bookings, more themed nights, more singalongs, and more Paint Your Pet sessions than we've ever run.
If you're wondering whether we're slowing down for year five, the answer is the opposite. We're going harder.
Why recognition like this actually matters
Awards are nice. But this one matters because it's repeatable. One-off recognition is a great year. Five years in a row is proof that the Paint Juicy you book in 2026 is the same Paint Juicy guests have been recommending to their friends since 2022.
That consistency is harder to fake than a flashy ad campaign. It's why we put it on the homepage. It's why we made a whole brag page for it. And it's why anyone planning a hens night, a birthday, a team event or a girls catch-up can book us with confidence, because the same standards that won the badge in 2022 are the standards we're still hitting in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is Best of Queensland Experience?
It's a recognition program run by Tourism and Events Queensland that assesses tourism operators on the quality of their visitor experience. It uses real review data, customer feedback and quality signals collected over the year. Operators don't nominate themselves, and the assessment is based on consistency across the calendar.
How many years has Paint Juicy been recognised?
Every year since 2022. The full run is 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026. Five years in a row.
Where can I book a Paint Juicy session?
Sessions run across Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory. Public sessions and private bookings are both available. Use the buttons below to find a session near you, or head to our about page if you want the longer story first.
What makes Paint Juicy different from other paint and sip events?
The energy. We run high-energy singalong nights, themed parties, bottomless brunches and private events. We are not a quiet, structured paint class. We are a girls night out, a hens party, a birthday catch-up, a team event, with a finished painting at the end as a souvenir. For the full breakdown, see why Paint Juicy.
Five-time award winners
Find a session near you
Public sessions from $59 across Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory
