The Cabramatta Moon Festival, celebrated once a year when the moon shines brightest at the vernal equinox, is one of Sydney's largest Asian multicultural festivals. It draws crowds in the tens of thousands and is worth visiting for a taste of Asian multicultural life in the Sydney suburbs.
- The southern hemisphere's vernal equinox is the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere and falls around September 21 each year. The equinox marks the day when daylight and nighttime are equal in length.
The Cabramatta Moon Festival is celebrated around this period at an auspiciously selected date. In 2008, the Cabramatta festival takes place on September 6.
The Cabramatta Moon Festival is celebrated with red lanterns, moon cakes, decorated shopfronts, lion dancers in the streets, and climactic fireworks.
Traditional music and dance, live entertainment, carnival rides, farm animals, fashion parades add to the excitement of the day.
Most unwestern-looking suburb
Cabramatta, 32 kilometres southwest of the Sydney city centre, is a multicultural suburb within the local government area of Fairfield City. It attracts visitors — sightseers and shoppers alike — throughout the year.
Cabramatta has the reputation of being very much a Vietnamese community with thousands of Indochinese refugees, accepted by the Australian Government, settling in the area.
It is a most unwestern-looking suburb in all of Australia, and is the place to go for Asian goods and produce, ranging from fresh Asian vegetables and fruits, Asian condiments, cooked Asian delicacies, to Asian knickknacks, furnishings, furniture and clothing.
Much ethnic diversity
While regarded as a Vietnamese community, Cabramatta is actually more ethnically diverse and the Fairfield City area itself has more than half of its population born overseas in 133 countries.
Recently Cabramatta was the film location for the Australian movie Little Fish (compare prices) starring Cate Blanchett, Hollywood's Dustin Nguyen (21 Jump Street), and a lineup of Australia's most distinguished film stars. Cabramatta was named Little Saigon in the movie.
Where the festival is held
The Cabramatta Moon Festival is centred in the bustling shopping and restaurant precinct of Cabramatta's John St and Freedom Plaza.
Because parking can be quite a problem, the best way to visit Cabramatta is by train or, if you prefer, by joining a coach tour group.
Cabramatta is about 40 minutes by train from any of Sydney's City Circle railway stations.
