Events and Festivals

A variety of events and festivals fill the Australian calendar, from flower festivals to horse racing carnivals, even to boat racing on dry land.

Three arts festivals are being held in Adelaide, South Australia, almost concurrently.

The Adelaide Festival is renowned in arts and cultural circles throughout Australia and in other parts of the world.

Australia and New Zealand honor their soldiers who fought in the wars, from Gallipoli to the presentday.

Australia commemorates the establishment of the first white settlement at Sydney Cove.

In a country where Christmas takes place in the summer, it seemed only a matter of time before people started enjoying the spirit and the trappings of Christmas in the middle of the Australian year, which is when it's winter in Australia. So was born Christmas in July and Yulefest in the New South Wales Blue Mountains.

The Bowral Tulip Time Festival is held each spring in the New South Wales Southern Highlands southwest of Sydney.

It's the day after Christmas Day, a national public holiday in Australia.

Sydney celebrates the Chinese New Year with a festival each year. Here are pictures of the 2006 festival.

Christmas in Australia is celebrated in the first month of the southern summer, so forget the snow and forget the sleighs.

Christmas in Sydney occurs in the Australian summer, so there's no snow and no sleighs but there seems to be everything else.

The Darwin Beer Can Regatta is a yearly event with boats made out of beer cans racing on Mindil Beach.

The Easter in Sydney festival encompasses the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the four-day Easter long weekend, the start of school holidays, various Group 1 horse races at Rosehill and Randwick, football matches, and theatre and other cultural events.

The Royal Queensland Show, colloquially and better known as the Ekka, is held in Brisbane in August and is Queensland's biggest annual event.

The Canberra Floriade, an annual flower festival redolent with the scents, sounds and sights of the Canberra spring, is held from around the middle of September to around the middle of October.

The Labot Day public holiday is celebrated in Australia on different dates in different states and territories.

Australia's premier horse racing event is run on the first Tuesday of November at Melbourne's Flemington Racecourse.

The Moomba Festival is a huge outdoor Melbourne event of several days which had its start in 1954 as a focus of city celebrations and activities. Traditionally it ends with a colorful street parade with floats, costumed participants, and a crowned Moomba Monarch.

It's a public holiday in Australia and New Zealand but celebrated on different dates. In New South Wales, it also marks the start of the ski season.

Here's a selection of some of the quirky annual and biennial events and festivals taking place in Queensland.

With a large Irish Australian population, Sydney holds a traditional St Patrick's Day parade and a Family Day at Hyde Park on a date close to the traditionally-observed St Patrick's Day.

Irish Australians (and Aussies of Irish descent a number of generations removed) make up a substantial sector of the Australian population. So it is no surprise that Irish traditions and customs pervade much of Australian life. In Sydney, strong manifestations of this culture are evident in the festivities surrounding St Patrick's Day.

The Sydney Chinese New Year Festival is an annual city celebration featuring a colorful twilight parade.

The 2012 Sydney Festival is taking place from January 7 to 29 with various arts events in the city and its suburbs.

Usually held in February and early March, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras embraces a broad spectrum of activities culminating in a massive evening parade and an all-night party.

The Sydney Mardi Gras covers a broad spectrum of activities and attractions such as art exhibitions and a film festival.

The 2011 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race started at Sydney Harbour on December 26.

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is held each year at Eastertime in the Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush Bay, and includes carnival shows, rodeo, stunts, races, competitions, fashion shows, food stalls, and a showcase of new and popular products.

The danger-fraught Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starts at Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, December 26, and finishes in Hobart, Tasmania.

Light, music and ideas are the main features of Sydney's annual Vivid Festival.

The Ningaloo Whaleshark Festival is held every other year at Exmouth, Western Australia.

Wildflower Week is held at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, Victoria, in the spring.