Festival

The Maldon Folk Festival returns this weekend, with a sensational program that features performers from across Australia, the US and England ... Where to start?!  Let’s begin with Gina Jefferey, who must surely be one of the queens of country music.

The Festival of Small Halls stopped in at Pilton Soldiers Memorial Hall, performing in front of a big crowd. Lee ann Weekes from down the road at West Haldon opened the show. She was followed by Brisbane-based cellist Monique Clare and Canadian musician Shane Pendergast.

The stunning beauty of Grafton’s famous jacaranda trees is being captured forever on canvas by internationally acclaimed South Korean artist Kim Chang Han, who is visiting the Clarence Valley for the 2023 Grafton Jacaranda Festival … Mr Han said painting is one of his greatest enjoyments in life…

Hundreds of admiring spectators gathered beneath the glowing purple petals of the jacaranda trees in See Park, Grafton ... for the opening night of Illuminate Jacaranda ... “It was a stunning way to show off the beauty of the jacaranda trees”: Cherie Goodwin.

Organisers of the all-new Bundanoon Folk Festival this November 24-26 say it’s heart-warming to see the village community rally to lend their time and skills to bring the Festival to life ... The vision is to build an annual Folk Festival unique to Bundanoon, that connects and showcases the village, supports local businesses, and creates gigs for regional artists along with crowd-pleasing national talent. Among fun live performances will be music, song and spoken word.

It’s the Byron Bay Film Festival, so there's always going to be  surf  films ... Topping the bill is Emmy-winning filmmaker Paul Taublieb’s documentary Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear, which poses the question: what prompts big wave surfers to travel the globe to find absurdly colossal waves to throw themselves into, tackling natural forces in a contest that any rational human would see as insane?

The Corryong Historic Machinery Club is welcoming returning participants, visitors and locals to its 2023 Rally this weekend; the first event since 2019 following the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, the pandemic and a ‘big wet’.

The annual Spirit of the Land festival made its return over the weekend making Lockhart a haven for sculptures and fine arts. The event opened early on Saturday the 7th and finished off on the following Sunday with stalls, galleries, exhibitions and sculptures galore to enjoy.

Excitement is building for this year’s Dunolly Gold Rush Festival to be held on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October. The weekend will kick off on Saturday 21 October with the Dunolly Gold Rush Music Festival ... There will be a variety of stalls, prizes, great music in the Rotunda, the favourite “Hold the Gold” competition, Festival merchandise sales, displays of classic cars ...

Spotlight on Byron – a long-standing highlight of the Byron Bay Film Festival – hails the work of Northern Rivers filmmakers in a showcase of nine films to be screened at the iconic Brunswick Picture House. The diverse talent on display never fails to amaze BBFF’s audiences, and Spotlight on Byron provides an opportunity for filmmakers to have their work shown on the big screen for friends, family, and the whole community.

The Wallaby Creek Festival 2023, held from September 22 to 24 at Shipton’s Flat Road in Rossville, Tropical North Queensland, proved to be an overwhelming success, marking its 21st anniversary in grand style. Festival Director Jen Midgely expressed her delight, saying, “This year’s Wallaby Creek Festival has been a phenomenal celebration of music, art, and community.

Over the first weekend in August, Maldon played host to the second Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas. The events were well attended and brought hundreds of visitors into town, many of whom had never visited Maldon before ... "Just like our friends at Dark Mofo, we’ve found the existing business model for Goldfields Gothic doesn’t work in the present environment": Festival Director Valentina Tansley.

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

Known as the biggest gathering of teamsters in the nation, the 2023 Good Old Days Festival drew 6000 visitors for the unique working heritage display of blade shearing, chaff cutting, harvesting, ploughing, log snigging, log obstacle course, shoeing, blacksmithing, butter churning, Furphy rebarrelling, working yard dogs, whip cracking, dog jumping, billy boiling and the Australia Light Horse display.

Murtoa’s Big Weekend will bring the region new and exciting elements in the 3-day event during October 6 to 8, 2023. A stunning line-up will offer the local community and visitors to Murtoa an opportunity to come together and enjoy a large variety of features to suit every age.  

Will Hunter. A lack of volunteers has spelled the end for a major staple of the Copper Coast New Year’s Eve celebrations. The event held at the Wallaroo jetty — consisting of amusement rides and food vendors — will not run this year following the disbanding of the CCNYE committee.

“The Australian Musical Theatre Festival was developed to bring a cultural festival to our state’s north during winter, and it is now an established feature of our annual events calendar,” Minister  Street said.

Enjoy live music, food and drink and brightly lit displays of the tulips which offer a wonderfully different perspective to the day time tulip time garden display ... It’s a lovely community vibe which will also have a number of visitors to the Southern Highlands region due to the Festival being held over the long weekend.  

This is the 20th year that we have enjoyed seeing stunning tulips bloom in Bendigo! Our Parks staff have again created a beautiful display  that features an assortment of colours and sizes, with around 25 varieties on show.

Pam Jewson. Earlier this year, an estimated 1,000 people attended the Maldon Twilight Festival. On the back of the success … the intention is to make this a permanent two-day event on the Maldon calendar … To keep the event viable, we need to think smarter and make the load on the few easier.

Bullockies from around Australia will compete for the prestigious Teamsters Trophy while goats in harness will vie for the inaugural Little Teamsters Trophy at the 2023 Good Old Days Festival at Barellan in southern NSW on September 30 - October 1. The festival is the nation’s largest gathering of draught animals working in harness as they did on Australian farms over a century ago.

Cuttlefest has proven a success again this year, with more than 10,000 people from across the globe enjoying the natural spectacle and associated events! Themed around the return of the Cuttlefish to Spencer Gulf waters, Cuttlefest provided an abundance of opportunities and experiences from May to August.