Festival

Greater Shepparton City Council is excited to welcome back the Illuminate festival to the shores of Victoria Park Lake next month. The event creates a full sensory experience, incorporating lights, music and food in a way that celebrates the region and builds Greater Shepparton’s brand as regional Victoria’s abundant, dynamic, cultural capital.

Are you looking for a novel idea this Easter? How about hunting for a literary gem among more than 200,000 offerings at Lifeline Bookfest Sunshine Coast at Nambour Showgrounds. Division 10 Councillor David Law said a massive range of bargain books would be on sale at the four-day event from Friday, April 7, to Monday, April 10, being held from 9am to 4pm each day.  

Here’s a heads-up for an imaginative art installation being presented by Maldon Inc. Twelve 1.5 metre high kangaroos, along with some joeys, will be showcased in shop windows during the 2023 Maldon In Winter Festival, which will be running from 23 June to 9 July.

Honor Auchinleck. Timing and circumstances ensure some wartime tragedies are more defining than others and so it was with Malcolm Chisholm. He was the first Australian to die and the first of some 60,000 Australians who lost their lives on the First World War battlefields. His death has resonated through more than a century and well beyond the Upper Murray.

Wet weather may have forced a last-minute venue change, but it was raining talent at the Maclean Bowling Club on March 25 as singers and songwriters from across the region stepped onto the stage and let their vocals and instrumental skills shine during local music festival Clarence Tunes ... A star-studded line up including Isla and Bella, Waiting For Alex, Olivia Hinde, and Kirra Hallam, earned repeated rounds of applause from an appreciative audience, who described the performers as “outstanding”, “awesome”, and “amazing.”

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) has confirmed an impeccable line up of 15 Indigenous fashion designers and wearable art makers from across Queensland whose collective response to the 2023 theme ‘Woven’ will tell a powerful story marking 10 years of fashion performances.

Last weekend the weather was hot but perfect for the tough breed of Heavy Horses at the Allora Showground. This being the second year of running the Darling Downs Heavy Horse Festival over two full days. Organisers were thrilled with the crowd of around 5,000 through the gates with Saturday being a huge day.

To be more precise, the two young ladies, both nineteen, are from Furstenfeldbruck, within the Munich (now Munchen) area of Germany. In their Travellers Autobarn camper van, they have motored down Australia’s east coast, arriving at the Donald caravan park in time for the out-of-town Esoteric Festival.

Treasured Australian singer-songwriter and Maldon local Mandy Connell is the face behind a monthly mini-festival at the Kangaroo Hotel in Maldon. The event, called Goldfields Folk & Roots: Roo Fest, offers a curated afternoon of folk and roots music celebrating local and invited musicians.

Two full days of Activities,   Displays and   Demonstrations. You’ll be amazed by the gentle giants such as Clydesdales, Percherons, Shires, Australian Draught Horses and Belgians. This year sees 120 magnificent horses displaying their versatility in Breed Led Classes, Working horses and Ridden events including hack, dressage and barrel races.

Seven years in the making and interrupted by a Covid cancellation, Donald’s 2023 Esoteric festival, “Wild Wastelands”, proved to be a sell-out, with a gathering of 7,500 paying patrons converging on the site, just north of Donald for the five day event. Local promoter, Sam Goldsmith, has invested heavily in the continued development of the location, spending months upgrading infrastructure for this year’s event.

Fancy a writers' festival with a bit of rustic charm and some good old-fashioned country hospitality? This March, head to the historic Avon Valley town of York in Western Australia's Wheatbelt for a unique event: a weekend featuring some of WA's finest authors and poets in conversation with each other, unmediated and unplugged!

Cook Shire Mayor, Peter Scott is looking forward to the upcoming festival, stating, "The Cooktown Discovery Festival is a celebration of our community's rich cultural heritage and the special place Cooktown has in Australian history. It is a time for us to come together and celebrate all that makes Cooktown and this region so special."

The 2023 River Daze festival thrilled attendees with talented musicians, great food and reasonable prices. “It’s such an intimate setting to have over 1,000 people in here, the river in the background and a family friendly atmosphere,” said Paul, who had travelled from Melbourne for the event.

Now in its sixth year, Donald’s annual Esoteric Festival continues to evolve and grow, with this year’s event, to be held over over 5 days from Friday, March 10 through to Tuesday, March 14, having the potential to attract an estimated attendance of 7,000 patrons. Speaking to the "[Buloke] Times" on Monday, with final preparations being carried out at the site, off Harris Road, promoter Sam Goldsmith said everything was in readiness for the region’s biggest event.

The World Wetland Day Yabby Festival was a huge success ... The Pollack Swamp is a 700ha flora and fauna nature reserve in the Koondrook-Perricoota Forest. Historically occupied by the Barapa Barapa people, the swamp has become a model of how locally driven projects can collaboratively engage community members, farmers and traditional owners to enhance environmental outcomes.

Jenny Pollard. It starts with a road trip and bridges the city / country divide. There’s a playlist for the road and it brings some of the biggest names in indie music to the “bush”. But above all, what makes the “OK Motels Festival” such a hit is the positive focus it brings to Charlton and the energising momentum that results.

The hall was packed and all eyes were on the screen at the Bangalow Flickerfest on Saturday, February 18. IndyNR.com presented  Tinnie Heroes  – a film about the floods.

Bouncing back from the flood-enforced cancellation last October, Charlton's "OK Motels" Festival was back with a bigger and better impact as visitors soaked up the relaxed country lifestyle last weekend. With the focus firmly set on “community” and the town presenting an array of add-on activities, there was a tangible feeling of homecoming, as friendships were rekindled, new ones made, and former attendees introducing newcomers to what could viewed as a “lifestyle” event.

The Barkly will be representing in the upcoming Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, with our own Emily Wells starring! ... She will be marching with the organisation Trans Pride Australia on a float called the “Kaleidoscope of Gender”.

Get your calendars out and highlight these dates if you want to immerse yourself in a Sunshine Coast event like no other. Organisers have confirmed that the 2023 Horizon Festival, a 10-day showcase of culture, music, visual art, theatre, dance, comedy and creative workshops, will return in 2023 from August 25 to September 3.