Meet Luke Player: The Artist Behind the Beer, Footy & Food Festival 2026 Poster

Celebrated Australian illustrator, Luke Player, shares the inspiration behind this year's iconic 10th anniversary artwork.

With his vintage Australiana poster aesthetic, Luke Player couldn’t be more perfect as the designer for the Beer, Footy & Food Festival. Few artists capture the spirit, beauty, and unique character of Australian landscape and culture quite like Luke Player. Through bold colours, clean lines and a distinctly retro style, this multi-disciplined illustrator, graphic designer, screen printer, and musician has built a reputation as the go-to artist for anything that needs that authentic Aussie feel. 

Player lives and works in the coastal village of Stanwell Park, near Wollongong, which he describes as “a quiet place with lots of natural beauty. His distinctive style owes much to Australia's rich design history. Vintage travel posters, souvenir tea towels and mid-century screen prints all influence his work, along with the bold graphic design of the 1970s and 1980s. Limited colour palettes, striking typography and simplified shapes give each piece a timeless quality, while subtle contemporary touches ensure the artwork feels fresh rather than purely nostalgic.

“It varies a bit. I guess I lean towards the older styles of art and design, particularly Australiana stuff,” says Player, describing his own work. “I try to keep my art hands-on and embrace imperfection with whatever I do.”

He learnt to screen print at National Art School and now finds the methodology continues to inform his style.  “I start with laying out composition and try to execute my designs with the most limited colour palette possible.”

Imagery of rugged coast, bushland, country towns and wildlife permeate Player’s work, and they sit alongside typical cultural references like surfboards, pubs, meat pies, caravans and even the iconic Hill’s Hoist. He cites the artwork of Mambo as well as classic pop culture an early inspirations. 

“I started by doing music posters for bands I was playing in and there’s a whole visual language

and identity there which inspired me; everything from Martin Sharp and Reg Mombassa to old

horror and sci-fi comic book covers. There’s a strong DIY sensibility in the music scene which I

always find inspiring.”

As his artistic practise developed, Player augmented his field of reference to almost everything that surrounded him that had some kind of quirky appeal, particularly focusing on promotional, commercial, and decorative style designs. 

“My visual palette expanded as I furthered my art and design and I began noticing a lot of

inspiration in ephemeral and everyday items. I started looking at old travel posters, matchbooks, tea-towels, cartoons, paper bags, anything really; designs that are often overlooked and not particularly made to last but have a lot of charm and soul. I like things that are in most Aussie households rather than in art galleries, my Louvre is your grandma’s house!”

With this background and taste, it’s a no-brainer that Player was selected as the designer for the Beer, Footy & Food Festival; the 2026 festival will be Player’s second year in this role. 

I initially met some of the crew behind it through gigs and music posters and I think we agreed it’d be fun to mix the styles of classic Aussie footy visuals with gig-poster sensibilities. They give me a lot of freedom and trust to explore ideas which always makes for a fun project, hopefully many more to come!”

This year, the Beer, Footy & Food Festival is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, which adds a little more pressure, but also more scope for designing artwork. 

“We wanted something that felt celebratory and exciting,” says Player, “there’s always an aim for the art to feel iconically Henson Park and inner-west centric, so we keep that in mind.”

The festival is inextricably connected to Henson Park and, therefore, the inner west and Newtown. Its associations with idiosyncratic Aussie culture, most notably, football (rugby league, that is), beer (especially local, independent brews), food (meat pies and beyond), but also big outdoor events, family friendly fun, and community spirit, as well as its inherent nostalgia, all helped feed into the brainstorming process.

“We were looking at a bunch of old fair and community event posters that used almost a pastiche or collage to convey lots of elements, sort of a medley to represent all the elements of the festival, kind of like a stained glass window,” explains Player.

The result is what will undoubtedly become a collectible poster.  Asked what he is most looking forward to at this year’s BFFF at Henson Park, Player, a little predictably replies: 

“Beer, footy and food!… (and wrestling)”.

Aren't we all Luke, aren't we all.

Get your tickets to this year's Beer, Footy and Food Festival HERE. 

Beer Footy & Food Festival

July 18th, 2026

Henson Park | 32 Centennial St, Marrickville