Winter weekenders: 20 Australian festivals worth travelling for from May to August 2025
Beyond big ticket winter festivals like Sydney's Vivid, Hobart's Dark Mofo and Melbourne's Rising, there's a bounty of smaller events taking place across Australia. Whether you're interested in food, music, film, visual arts or words, you'll find a festival worth booking a weekend around.
New South Wales
Narooma Oyster festivalFriday 2 May to Sunday 4 MayOn the south coast of NSW, winter oyster season begins with a literal bang – there are fireworks on the Friday night. In addition to tasting stands from oyster farmers across the region, Narooma's Oyster festival features live music, demonstrations from big name chefs like Analiese Gregory and Nornie Bero, a hotly contested shucking championship – plus market stalls, street theatre and bars from local breweries, distilleries and wine makers. There's also visual art curated by the town's spring arts festival River of Art and fancier events like a sunset champagne and oyster cruise, for those who'd like to splash out. Entry to the festival's main day on Saturday costs $45; Friday night's 'warm-up' party is $25; and entry on Sunday is free, as is entry for kids under 16 any day of the event. If you can't get accommodation in Narooma, there are shuttle bus services from surrounding towns, between Batemans Bay, Bermagui and Merimbula.
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MakeGood, BundanonSaturday 17 May and Sunday 18 MayDedicated to improving your life and the planet, MakeGood at Kangaroo Valley gallery Bundanon has assembled a lineup including beloved Gardening Australia presenter Costa Georgiadis, permaculture expert and Milkwood Bakery co-founder Kirsten Bradley and Why Are We Like This? author Zoe Kean for a weekend of talks and hands-on demonstrations. There'll be kid-friendly art tours, workshops on woven-jewellery making by Wiradjuri fibre artist Jessika Spencer and even a wooden-spoon carving session – plus a Saturday night chamber concert by Bronzewing. Events are individually ticketed, starting at $18 for talks and more for workshops, with discounts available if you attend more than one thing over the weekend.
South Australia
Tasting AustraliaFriday 2 May to Sunday 11 MayTasting Australia is one of Australia's most established food festivals, bringing together a lineup of international and local chefs for dining events, demonstrations and masterclasses. Entry to the festival's main hub in Adelaide is free (though you will have to pay for your food and drink) and comes with a side of live music and visual arts. The festival's main draw are the 150 ticketed experiences that take place not just in Adelaide, but all around South Australia. This year's lineup includes an Indigenous Ingredients 101 cooking class with Indigiearth's Sharon Winsor ($79, Adelaide); a Filipino buffet on the Eyre Peninsula ($70) and more extravagant events like a four course wine-matched seafood lunch on Kangaroo Island ($249).
Tasmania
Australian Music Theatre festival, Launceston Wednesday 21 May to Sunday 25 MayShow tunes take over the town of Launceston in late May. Ticketed shows include Johanna Allen singing Harold Arlen, a Friday night cabaret and a new staging of 1970s Broadway hit Working, updated to include stories from Tasmanian locals. For free, you can see a choir in a pub, follow singers through Launceston's harvest market, visit a late evening 'Diva Den' or take part in a community sing-along. There's also an extensive education program to coach would-be triple threats in singing, acting and dancing alongside masterclasses taught by Caroline O'Connor, Mark Vincent and Alinta Chidzey.
New South Wales
Open Field 2025 Arts festival, BerryFriday 13 June to Sunday 15 JuneIt is only the second outing for this biannual contemporary arts festival in the Shoalhaven, first held in 2023. While this year's full lineup is yet to be announced, you can expect some risk-taking programming alongside family events. Already on the agenda is a local First Nations takeover of Berry Rural Youth Hall, overseen by Amanda Jane Reynolds and a performance work by Kenneth Lambert that includes a fleet of choreographed vacuum cleaners.
StoryFest, Milton, Ulladulla and MollymookFriday 19 June to Sunday 22 June
This festival on the south coast of NSW takes a broad approach to storytelling, with programming spanning fiction, poetry, food and song. The lineup includes Stephanie Alexander, Tim Ross and Gina Chick – plus free poetry with breakfast at delightful Milton cafe Pilgrims. Several events have already sold out, so it is worth planning ahead for this one. A bit further south, from Batemans Bay to Eden, there's also a month-long celebration of mushrooms, Fungi festival, which opens Friday 20 June.
Northern Territory
Barunga festival, Katherine and surroundsFriday 6 June to Monday 9 JuneHeld in a small Indigenous community 80km south of Katherine, the impressive musical lineup – including Thelma Plum, the Milla Brothers J-Milla and Yung Milla, East Journey, Rrawun Maymuru and Kootsie Don – is just the beginning of Barunga's programming. Showcasing arts and culture from around the Katherine and Arnhem Land regions, the festival includes a sports carnival, market stalls from some of the Territory's top arts centres and workshops including traditional weaving, cooking demonstrations and bush medicine. During the festival, Barunga's population increases tenfold, so visitors are encouraged to camp. An adult three-day festival pass costs $134.13, including camping; with extra fees for powered and unpowered caravan sites.
Queensland
Vision Splendid Outback Film festival, WintonFriday 27 June to Saturday 5 JulyOutback Queensland's annual film festival is solely focused on Australian cinema and frequently hosts premiere screenings, alongside retrospectives, a short film competition and family-friendly movies. This year's lineup is yet to be announced but film fans can look forward to the setting – The Proposition and Mystery Road were both filmed in and around Winton. While you're in the area, you can get your Jurassic (and Triassic, and Cretaceous) Park on at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum.
Tasmania
Festival of Voices, HobartFriday 27 June to Sunday 6 JulyNow in its 20th year, this festival caters to singers of all stripes, from choral to musical comedy, to those who would prefer to just sit back and listen. In addition to performances and singalongs, there are a huge range of workshops covering everything from songwriting to protecting your vocal cord health. The festival begins with the Big Sing, a massive free event where everyone is encouraged to lend their voice.
Victoria
Woodend Winter Arts festivalFriday 6 June to Monday 9 JuneNow in its 20th year, the Macedon Ranges festival has highbrow energy, with classical and jazz music and lectures on literature, design and visual arts. Highlights include an eight-cello ensemble playing Bach, Tchaikovsky and Philip Glass, and a talk by Beatrice Faust biographer Judith Brett. Most events are individually ticketed, with concerts priced at $48 for adults and talks at $25; but there's also a free exhibition with demonstrations from local artists.
East Gippsland Winter festivalFriday 20 June to Sunday 20 JulyNow in its fifth year, this month-long festival spans the entire East Gippsland region, combining lantern light and projections with an expansive and eccentric program of events. The full lineup will be announced in May, but highlights so far include a medieval fire festival (complete with costumes) an op-shop ball and a scarecrow-making competition.
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Western Australia
Ningaloo Sky festival, ExmouthFriday 27 June to Sunday 29 JuneRight in the middle of whale shark season, the Coral Coast has a new biennial festival. While the lineup is yet to be announced, the event is set to include food stalls, live music, ticketed dinners, a night-time drone show and talks about astronomy.
Queensland
Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair Thursday 10 July to Sunday 13 JulyYou don't have to be in the market for a masterpiece to get something out of Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair – although with 600 visual artists participating, there will be plenty of options to buy art. The festival also features live music, food stalls, fashion, performances, talks and workshops. Much of the programming is free, while tickets to the opening night party and weekend performances are all $50 and under.
Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville Friday 25 July to Saturday 2 AugustFeaturing 20 ticketed concerts, including seven full-length evening performances at Townsville's Civic theatre, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music also has free programming all week on the Civic theatre's forecourt. Most tickets are priced between $40-$100, but under-30s can access $30 tickets for many shows. In addition to a broad repertory from baroque to contemporary classical, there are lectures paired with music on topics like the ageing brain and the connections between music and the natural world.
BLEACH* Festival, Gold Coast Thursday 31 July to Sunday 10 AugustHeld at public art gallery Hota, what started as a surf festival has now expanded into a major contemporary arts event. This will be the first year visual artist Michael Zavros takes the helm as guest creative director. While the program is yet to be announced, you can expect free and ticketed shows and exhibitions, including some by international artists, accompanied by an extensive food and drink offering.
Victoria
Island Whale festival, Phillip IslandFriday 11 July to Sunday 13 JulyWould-be marine biologists of all ages can get their cetacean fix on shore at this festival, which features educational exhibits, talks from researchers, film screenings and of course the chance to watch passing humpback and southern right whales. The event's full program is yet to be announced, but weekend-long entry to the main festival hub is $30 for a family of four. If you're really lucky, you may even spot an orca during your visit.
New South Wales
Byron writers festivalFriday 8 August to Sunday 10 AugustA writers festival that's structured like a music festival; instead of buying tickets to individual events, you buy day or weekend passes that give you access to all the talks. This lets you take a punt on authors you might not be familiar with, or hop from talk to talk. This year's program is still to be announced, but last year's event featured Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes, Richard Flanagan, Bob Brown and the launch of Rebecca Huntley's memoir Sassafras.
Northern Territory
Country to Couture and Darwin Aboriginal Art fairTuesday 5 August and Thursday 7 August to Sunday 10 August The Northern Territory's massive showcase of First Nations creativity kicks off with a runway show like no other, Country to Couture, where art centres, designers and creatives come together from across Australia to stage a catwalk that features song, dance and one-off pieces of wearable art. This is followed by an art fair featuring works from more than 70 art centres, held in the Darwin Convention Centre. The event also takes in the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, and includes talks, demonstrations and kid-friendly activities. The fashion portions of the event are ticketed, but Daaf is free to attend.
Queensland
Moreton Bay Food + Wine festivalFriday 22 August to Sunday 24 AugustFor three days, the waterfront at Woody Point will transform into a sprawling outdoor market with food and drink from some of the region's best restaurants and bars. Visitors can expect demonstrations and talks by well known chefs, headlined by Ready Steady Cook's Miguel Maestre, plus live music and degustation dinners. Tickets for this year's festival go on sale in May, and it is worth planning ahead as two of the event's three-day run sold out in 2024.
Tasmania
Beaker Street, HobartTuesday 12 August to Tuesday 19 AugustMixing science and art, Beaker Street features talks, performances, markets and hands-on demonstrations. Previous years have included pop-up Finnish sauna tents, talks by Tim Flannery, Phillip Adams and the team from podcast Science Vs, and a stage show about menopause. The festival mixes free and ticketed events, with the annual highlight a selection of field trips that explore the nature surrounding Hobart, from glow worm caves to platypus walks.
Victoria
Winter Sounds, DaylesfordThursday 14 August to Monday 18 AugustThe producers behind Riverboats Music festival (which was headlined by the Cruel Sea and Dan Sultan last year) will take over small venues across Daylesford and surrounds – from churches to country to halls to a vintage train – for a series of intimate concerts at this new festival. The lineup will be announced in June.
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Time Out
20 hours ago
- Time Out
a stunning and powerful production... can't be missed
It's a chilly but beautiful winter's night on Cadigal land as I walk towards the Sydney Opera House. The lights of Vivid Sydney paint the harbour with mesmerising displays, creating the perfect atmosphere in the lead up to seeing Bangarra Dance Theatre 's brand new production, Illume. While Vivid lights up the exterior of the iconic Opera House, Illume sets the stage alight from the inside. An otherworldly spectacle, Illume is a collaboration between Mirning choreographer (and Bangarra's visionary artistic director) Frances Rings and Goolarrgon Bard visual artist Darrell Sibosado. Sibosado, known for his innovative contemporary light installations, lends his talents to the set and stage design in a theatrical experience that pays tribute to the creation stories of the Bard and Jawi people and the cultural hero, Galaloong. As the performance begins, audiences are immediately awestruck by a stunning display of the night sky – the dancers are enveloped by twinkling stars projected onto a sheer screen at the front of the stage and also on the back wall, with yet more lights darting around the stage providing an atmospheric glimmer. Elizabeth Gadsby 's costume design complements this, sparkly black dresses shimmer under the lights, alluding to the pristine beauty of land and sky untouched by environmental pollution. As the story progresses, and with each change in season, the costumes reflect the surroundings; shades of brown, red and beige are worn in the warmer and dry seasons. This attention to detail demonstrates a strong commitment to holistic storytelling. The symbolism woven throughout, by way of the choreography, props and stage design, transports the audience through a journey of Country and spiritualism. Vertical light blocks move up and down while the dancers navigate their bodies around them in a beautiful symbolic display of the spiritual significance of trees in Indigenous cultures. As the dancers travel across the stage, they move through a combination of dance styles, from traditional cultural dance, to contemporary dance and lyrical steps. Rings' stylistic choices expertly utilise the dancers' bodies to create beautiful patterns and shapes, and to mimic natural elements. Throughout the production we see the women dancing together as a united group, followed by the men dancing together; and while these groups remain separate in some scenes, in others they are combined. Rings' use of perspective and height is also successful in creating atmosphere and continuity of the story. As the dancers fall and roll across the stage in sync with one another, it mimics rolling water or wind. As the dancers lift each other up, creating differences in height, we can follow the story of the trees as they grow, sway and react to the elements. The music, composed by Brendon Boney, is also spectacular and, in some scenes, unexpected. While we are treated to percussive beats involving traditional instruments such as clapping sticks, there are also nods to science-fiction. As the show progresses, we start to experience more futuristic music and visuals, including some elements of hip-hop style movements accompanied by more techno-forward scores. The production's prop work also builds off the stunning light display. For example, one memorable scene involves dancers holding large illuminated ropes, twisting them and creating patterns. As a dancer myself, I want to note just how difficult that is to do – the precision required to ensure every dancer arrives at the specific spot on stage at the right moment to produce the shape is something that takes many hours of intricate planning and rehearsals. Yet, the dancers move with such ease and grace that it appears effortless. This ensemble's seamless and impressive transitions are to be highly commended. For me, the most beautiful moment of the whole show would have to be the yarning circle that occurs towards the end. A calm, quiet and seemingly 'simple' moment, this scene is able to convey deep connection with little movement. As a fire steadily burns to the right side of the stage, a group of dancers to the left are huddled together in a yarning circle, a cultural practice undertaken for close connection between mob. As the dancers sit there, under a spotlight, ash gently falls from the sky onto them. The effect is calm and serene. Overall, Illume is a stunning and powerful production. It is evident that an enormous amount of work has gone into this, and the result is a striking show that can't be missed. I highly recommend that you get out to see it.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
480 sheeps' heads in jars: Dark Mofo opens with another gory provocation
In the dimly-lit basement of a former furniture store in Hobart CBD, 480 embalmed sheep's heads in specimen jars are arranged on industrial shelving units: 24 racks, each four shelves high and with five jars per shelf, in a neat grid. The fastidiousness of the presentation sits at odds with the inherent violence of the material; so do the expressions on most of the sheep's faces, which range from serene to uncanny smiles. As if to dispel any false sense of quietude, the room's lighting periodically switches to nightmarish red. This is We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep, an installation by Trawulwuy artist Nathan Maynard, part of this year's Dark Mofo festival – the first after the often controversial festival took a year off in favour of a 'period of renewal'. Maynard's exhibition was the first announcement for the festival's return, and it drew some scepticism from members of the local Tasmanian Aboriginal community at the time. When it was announced via a teaser post featuring the quote 'What did you do with the bodies? – George Augustus Robinson, 1830', Tasmanian Aboriginal heritage officer Fiona Hamilton criticised Dark Mofo's 'gory fascination with the pain of our people'. Academic Greg Lehman, a descendant of the Trawulwuy people of north-east Tasmania, compared the 'ugly and tone-deaf' marketing of the project to the festival's widely criticised 2021 commission by Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, who called for the donation of blood by First Nations people, in which to soak a union jack flag. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The festival cancelled Sierra's work and apologised for the commission and their marketing of it, but its appetite for confronting – and gory – work is unabated. Visitors enter the space via a nondescript doorway on Collins Street marked by a red cross; an invigilator at the entrance warns them that the artwork 'may or may not be confronting'. There's no explanatory text or artist statement, and the artist agreed to only one interview, with the Indigenous-run paper Koori Mail – and on Thursday evening, the festival's opening night, visitors navigated the installation with varying levels of bemusement. Some entered the basement, saw the grisly cargo, and turned around and exited; others got their phones out and took pictures. When questioned by attenders, an invigilator at the room's entrance gamely attempted to encapsulate the dark history that inspired the work, and the ongoing issues that motivated Maynard to create it. 'We threw them down the rocks where they had thrown the sheep' is a quote from the journals of George Augustus Robinson, Tasmania's 'Chief Protector of Aborigines' from 1839 to 1849. Robinson was recounting an anecdote told to him with 'perfect indifference' by a perpetrator of one of the state's worst massacres: on 10 February 1828, four convict shepherds ambushed a group of Aboriginals at Cape Grim, in the island's north-west, shooting and driving about 30 of them off a 60-metre cliff, supposedly in retaliation for the destruction of about the same number of sheep. In his journal, Robinson wrote that he had issued the perpetrators a warning. The Cape Grim massacre is one of many that took place in Lutruwita/Tasmania during a state-orchestrated genocidal campaign against the island's First Peoples known as the Black War (1824-1832). Generally, there were no formal or legal consequences for white perpetrators. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Maynard told the Koori Mail last month that the massacre was 'just one example in this country of where white people valued sheep more than black human life'. In a statement to Guardian Australia, Dark Mofo's cultural adviser, Caleb Nichols-Mansell, said the work 'encourages a deeper investigation of the history, our shared pasts and an honest interrogation around these topics and themes that we typically avoid within arts and cultural settings'. The presentation of the sheep's heads in specimen jars points to a different kind of racist violence from the same era: the theft and trade of First Nations human remains, which occurred throughout Australia. These remains entered the private collections of white settlers and officials or were sold to museums and scientific institutions. The campaign for their repatriation has been running since the 1970s. Meanwhile, just 200 metres from the basement where Maynard's installation is held stands a statue of former governor Sir John Franklin, who is known to have collected the skulls of Aboriginal people. For visitors unaware of this context, the only clue is an audio track that plays in the corridor leading to the basement, featuring two voices – one Maynard's – expressing condemnation, anger and distress over the historical and continuing treatment of ancestral remains. It's hard to hear these voices clearly, but among the lines that cut through is the indelible exhortation: 'Imagine it was your mother or your grandmother who was collecting dust in a museum basement!' Maynard told the Koori Mail he hoped the installation would educate non-Indigenous people on Tasmania's violent past. It remains to be seen whether the work's enigmatic presentation will have the desired effect.
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Sexy BBC drama star in the frame to play Elizabeth Taylor in blockbuster TV show about movie icon
The actress also won plaudits for her depiction of the late, hellraising singer Amy Winehouse TAYLOR MADE ROLE Sexy BBC drama star in the frame to play Elizabeth Taylor in blockbuster TV show about movie icon RISING Brit star Marisa Abela is in the frame to play Elizabeth Taylor in a blockbuster TV drama charting the movie legend's sensational life. The actress won a Bafta for playing sexy financier Yasmin Kara-Hanani in three series of the BBC's bonking-and-banking drama Industry. Advertisement 4 Marisa Abela is in the frame to play Elizabeth Taylor in a blockbuster TV drama charting the movie legend's sensational life Credit: Getty 4 Screen siren Liz Taylor is rumoured to have once had a threesome with President John F Kennedy and actor Robert Stack Credit: Getty 4 Marisa won a Bafta for playing sexy financier Yasmin Kara-Hanani in BBC drama Industry Credit: Getty Marisa, 28, also won plaudits for her depiction of the late, hellraising singer Amy Winehouse in the 2024 movie Back to Black opposite Jack O'Connell as her boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil. An insider said: 'Bosses of the adaptation want someone who can capture the essence of the single-minded woman that married seven times and was said to have had a voracious sexual appetite. 'It's very early days for the project but the producers want to assemble formidable British talent with the aim of making this a blockbuster series.' Former EastEnders boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins is developing the drama — called Elizabeth Taylor Vs The World — with his production company Happy Prince. Advertisement The scripts are being written by Times columnist Caitlin Moran, a superfan who once said of her idol: 'She ate up life like a sexy glutton.' It is based on the book Erotic Vagrancy, written by Roger Lewis, about Liz's passionate love affair with husband Richard Burton. The London-born star of Cleopatra and Giant, who died in 2011 aged 79, was said to have had sexual needs as famous as her husband's. Legend has it that she once had a threesome with President John F Kennedy and actor Robert Stack. Advertisement Producers Happy Prince made the racy adaptation of Jilly Cooper's saucy novel Rivals that was shown on Disney+ last year and became one of the streamer's biggest hits. The company is part of ITV Studios, which means the drama could end up airing on ITV. Seven divorces, health drama & a public affair - Elizabeth Taylor's controversial life revealed as doc shares her side But it may end up in a bidding war among streamers with a hunger for quality British drama. 4 Marisa as Amy Winehouse opposite Jack O'Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil in Back to Black Credit: PA
