Mark your calendars with these phenomenal Aussie festivals
If there's one sure-fire way of injecting joy into your year – it's festivals. Gathering with like-minded people in rainbow-festooned palaces full of amazing music, glittering performances and zesty food sounds like utopia to us – which is why it's a blessing that Australia has an incredible array of festivals on offer, one for every season of the year.
In this list, we round up the best festivals that we reckon you should check out Down Under this year. Starting with those that are on earliest in the year and ending with those at the end, each of these festivals has been selected for its scale, its astonishing visuals, and its commitment to seriously good times.
From music to comedy, to wild light displays in the Outback, you can rest assured that going to any of these incredible Aussie festivals will be a bloody good time indeed.
🎭 The best musical and theatre shows in Australia
🎨 Australia's best art galleries
🍔 The best food festivals in Australia
January
Extraordinary theatre and arts, both local and international, arrive on Sydney’s stages in January for this huge annual celebration of culture. From late nights on the water filled with music and art to a free opera show on a boat, from wacky and delightful public art installations to trailblazing First Nations programming – this year's event featured more than 1,000 artists across 130 events.
January
Are you ready to rock and roll, mama? What began as a humble get-together of 300 Elvis aficionados in 1993 has grown into the biggest celebration of Elvis outside of Memphis. In 2024, more than 25,000 people gathered to shake, rattle and roll their way through five days of concerts, tribute acts, a street parade, look-alike competitions, rock’n’roll dancing and even a vow renewal ceremony, for couples whose love for each other is as strong as their love for the King.
January, Sydney + February to October, nationwide
This Academy Award-qualifying short film festival has a long, long history. Now entering its fourth decade, Flickerfest showcases the best short films from at home and across the world, and plays an important role in global film culture by helping makers of short films reach an audience here in Australia and internationally. Apart from Flickerfest's hotly contested competitions for Australian, International Shorts and Short Documentary, expect a showcase of youth filmmaking from across Australia (SAE FlickerUp); amazing LGBTQIA films (Rainbow Shorts); family-friendly films (FlickerKids); films about relationships (Love Bites); comedy (Short Laughs); and a Best Of European Union finalists screening. Following its ten-day premiere in Sydney, Flickerfest embarks on its national tour from February to October.
January
Giddy up and get on down to the largest and longest-running country music festival in the Southern Hemisphere. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Australia’s country musical capital, Tamworth, for a ten-day celebration featuring many of the world’s greatest country music stars. The pinnacle event is the Golden Guitar awards, with other highlights including the music parade, busking championships and free concerts on the main stage.
February
Laneway has long been a champion of indie music since launching in 2005. The one-day festival is famous for bringing out some of the hottest new acts alongside local talents and international superstars, with previous headliners including Billie Eilish, Tame Impala, Stormzy and Rüfüs Du Sol. You can get hot’n’sweaty in the front row at Laneway Festivals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, with Charli xcx headlining the summer fest in 2025.
February - March
Crowned as one of the most popular carnivals on Planet Earth, Sydney's Mardi Gras is undoubtedly an institution. This huge city-wide festival turns Sydney into a giant rainbow every summer, and with each year that goes by, the rainbow gets bigger, cooler and way more impressive. With a huge parade that shuts down town, hundreds of sparkly shows and countless wild experiences, feasts and lights that all celebrate the vibrancy of the LGBTQI+ community, you should pop Sydney Mardi Gras on your list. It's always a pretty incredible time.
February - March
Adelaide Fringe is the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere. For a whole month, this small city in South Australia is bursting with hundreds of cabaret, music, comedy, theatre and visual arts shows that all look like they could blow your socks off. From fire breathers to comedy to giant food tents devoted to all things gluttony, Adelaide Fringe brings together more than 6,000 diverse artists from all over the world in one place. Explore Adelaide over four weeks and stumble across hidden shows, curated experiences and epic eats that will be scattered across the city.
February - March
For ten magical autumn nights, Canberra becomes a nocturnal playground, with colourful light projections on iconic national attractions like Parliament House, the National Library of Australia and Questacon. In fact, the full city comes alive as a full festival hub with past after-dark experiences, including silent discos, outdoor symphony concerts, night noodle markets and a short film festival. However, the pinnacle event is the highly-anticipated Canberra Balloon Spectacular, which is free to watch from the lawns of Old Parliament House.
March
It’s a huge international affair at WOMADelaide – World of Music Arts and Dance – where artists from more than 40 countries grace the stage in Adelaide’s beautiful Botanic Gardens. Almost 100,000 festival-goers grooved among the trees at the 32nd edition in 2024, with legendary UK musician PJ Harvey, German multi-instrumentalist Nils Frahm, and Warnindhilyagwa woman Emily Wurramara all on the 2025 program. That’s not to mention all the other stuff: the huge array of multicultural food and drink, the markets, and all the cool interactive art stuff you can do when you're, um... feeling the music.
March
If you love a good hoedown throwdown, mark your calendars for Australia’s leading country festival, CMC Rocks. Since its debut in the early 2000s, big names like Taylor Swift, Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen have lit up the stage, and 2025 promises to be no different, featuring honky-tonk heartthrobs Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Thomas Rhett. Expect plenty of line dancing, live band karaoke and late-night drinks, plus the return of the iconic eight-metre-high cowboy boot. Yee-haw!
March - April
One of the largest comedy festivals in the world, this cacophony of chuckles is for all those who need a bloody good laugh. Running for a decent few weeks in autumn, you can expect to see some of the world's best comedians work their new material on stages across Melbourne city. With a line-up that includes a mix of (literally) hundreds of international and home-grown comics alike, this festival is guaranteed to be an extremely joyful highlight of your year.
April
For 35 years, Byron Bay Bluesfest has been cranking thousands of people through their slick festival site for a five-day fest over the Easter long weekend. Over the years, the jam-packed line-ups have been stacked with traditional bluesy rock bands and big-name music legends, cult folk offerings, indie gems, traditional jazz and world music acts. Sadly in 2025, Bluesfest returns for its final year with Crowded House, Hilltop Hoods, Vance Joy, Tones and I, and more.
April
The only kind of Aboriginal light festival of its kind in the world. Parrtjima (pronounced Par-chee-ma) takes its name from the Arrernte word Parrtma, which means ‘lighting up’ in two ways – both illuminating an object and shedding light on a subject. For ten days, this shining festival of lights illuminates the red desert of Alice Springs, sharing timeless stories of the world’s oldest continuous culture through innovative art installations and large-scale projections.
May
Calling all bookworms, literature lovers and BookTok obsessives: this action-packed event for bookworms and writers will allow you to hear from New York Times best-selling authors, Pulitzer and Booker Prize standouts and festival first-timers. In 2024, there are many MWF exclusive events centred around this year’s theme of ‘Ghosts’, inviting attendees to ponder the ghosts (figurative and literal) that haunt our daily lives.
May
The Kimberley’s biggest festival held annually in May is anything but ordinary. Located on the banks of the Ord River, Kununurra is the launch pad of this diverse cultural experience, highlighting the vast and dramatic landscapes of northwest Australia through culinary, creative and cultural events. Rally the squad and adventure on down for comedy in the park, dinner under the stars, the top-end mustering rodeo, a yoga boat ride and more.
May
Every year at the start of the dry season, the epic Bass in the Grass festival arrives in Darwin, heralding in a perfect storm of sequins, disco and quality music acts that draw in great crowds and even greater times. Blazing sunsets, incredible street food, stunning music, a whole plethora of parties, silent discos and rainbows galore make Bass worth your salt. Although this one-day festival only happens once a year, if you're planning on making the trip up north, think about making it coincide with this big and fabulous day out.
May
Humongous, vibrant and seriously striking – Darwin is a canvas for some of the world’s most spectacular street art. Thanks to the city’s highly-awarded Street Art Festival, it’s the only Australian city with a mural on every major city street. In 2024, more than 20 new, thought-provoking murals were painted across Darwin's CBD and surroundings, accompanied by artist talks, free block parties, outdoor film screenings and graffiti workshops.
May
For a few special days every autumn, Sydney comes alive with writers, journalists, public intellectuals and book lovers – who gather for the Emerald City’s long-standing celebration of literature, reading and ideas: the Sydney Writers' Festival. In 2024, almost 300 writers from all over Australia and the world came together to share stories and interrogate ideas, all around the central theme of Take Me Away. If you’re on a starving artist budget, fear not: the program features heaps of free events too.
May - June
Vivid has long been Sydney's shiniest time of year. Lighting up the city during the darkest months of winter, this festival of food, art, music and ideas is always a dazzling kind of spectacle, and every year it gets a little bit better. With the city's best known landmarks transformed by shimmering rainbow lights, huge etheral installation pieces popping up on city sidewalks, and hundreds of talks, concerts and events going down all over town, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll have something shiny to do in Sydney on any given night, from May to June.
May - June
The book lover's favourite fest returns to Brisbane every winter with a huge line-up of free and ticketed events. A celebration of Australian thought-leaders, 60 of the speakers in the 2024 program were local Brisbane authors, with incredible international speakers joining them on stage at the State Library of Queensland. Australian headline authors included Melissa Lucashenko, Julia Baird and Trent Dalton while international highlights including Booker Prize-shortlisted author Paul Murray and bestselling crime writer Michael Connelly.
May - June
Reflect, rave and revel under the moonlight at Rising – Melbourne's flagship festival of music, food, art and culture. Returning in June each year, this two-week extravaganza promises a fully immersive journey through powerful theatre, exhilarating dance, mesmerising local and international music, and inspiring outdoor installations at the city’s landmark venues.
June
Hobart's darkly debaucherous festival Dark Mofo will make a grand return in 2025, after taking a break in 2024 for a period of renewal. The midwinter solstice festival will unleash a glorious whirlwind of artistic chaos, featuring a multi-sensory program of arts, music and rituals. Highlights of the 2025 program include the infamous Nude Solstice Swim, Winter Feast, the Ogoh-Ogoh and Night Mass.
June
Rock and roll into the Gold Coast in June for Australia’s largest nostalgia festival, which takes place on the famous Coolangatta foreshore. More than 160,000 people make the annual pilgrimage for crowd-favourite events, like the renowned Show’N’Shine display with more than 900 cars, Elvis tribute concert, 1940s moonlight swing dance and classic pin-up pageant. Don’t forget your vintage totes to pick up retro goods and memorabilia from the beachfront markets.
June
Radiating from the glittering State Theatre and beaming out to cinema screens across the city, the Sydney Film Festival is the jewel in the crown of the city’s cinematic scene. The world-class event features hundreds of screenings, spanning from Cannes contenders to Hollywood hits, Australian premieres and intriguing international films. Dozens of high-profile guests descend upon the Harbour City for filmmaker talks, panels and themed parties, all crammed into 12 days each June.
June
For everyone Down Under who feels cheated out of a wintery Yuletide fest, look no further than this Xmas in July festival going down in Australia’s answer to a freezing European village – Canberra. Each year, the open-air festival brings a gorgeous array of torched marshmallows and (boozy) hot chocolates, melted French cheeses, more than 40 pop-up French and European food stalls, fire pits, a mulled wine garden, free French concerts and all-round Christmas market vibes (complete with legit falling 'snow') to Canberra’s Parkes Place lawn. And it's free entry. Joyeux Noël.
July
Pass the popcorn! Australia's leading festival of indie cinema stretches its wings around Perth city every winter, with the most recent showcase featuring more than 30 feature films and documentaries, plus more than 80 short films. From coming-of-age narratives and dark comedies to fantasy, horror, drama, family animation and documentaries, there really is a flick for every movie lover out there.
July
Finding your way to the start line is all part of the fun at the most remote music festival on the planet. Whether you’re embarking on an epic Aussie road trip, hopping on the Rock’n’Roll Charter Bus or opting for an easy flight, your outback adventure is only just getting started. Thousands of music fans gather under the open skies of the Simpson Desert for this three-day festival, set against the backdrop of Big Red, the biggest sand dune in Munga-Thirri National Park. Sing along to your favourite songs by Aussie music legends, like past headliners Tina Arena, Jon Stevens and the Hoodoo Gurus, and go full outback with camel rides, sunrise yoga and sand dune surfing. PS: Kids and dogs are welcome to join the fun too.
July
Australia’s festival capital has its own dazzling light-centric festival to rival the likes of Vivid Sydney and Rising in Melbourne. They don’t call Adelaide the 20-minute city for nothing. Pretty much all the illuminated events and free installations are within a five- to 15-minute walk from the CBD, including the dynamic flaming sculptures of Fire Gardens at Adelaide Botanic Garden, after-dark puppetry and animations in Universal Kingdom at Adelaide Zoo, and experimental music festival Unsound Adelaide, which blends immersive visuals and electrifying beats.
August
Three Hobartians walk into a bar. With Hobart boasting the largest proportion of scientists out of any Australian city, odds are at least one of them has a lab coat in their closet. That likelihood doubles if you’re in Tasmania during Beaker Street Festival – the nation’s top science and arts celebration held annually during National Science Week. Forget boring school science experiments or dull university lectures. In 2024, the program featured an all-new Antarctic polar plunge and sauna experience, an innovative 2050 Future Foods dinner, and talks by Australia’s biggest scientists, including Dr Karl and Adam Spencer.
August
Want to escape the cold in mainland Australia? Look no further. With a tagline of 'Hot August Nights', you know you're in for a special time. This tropical wonderland of a city in Australia's Top End comes alive every August with a huge festival that brings joy, music and extremely good laksa to every street corner. You can expect shimmering fairy lights, incredible street food and a vibrant array of epic live performances, music and art that all need to be seen to be believed. Highlights in 2024 included the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs), Missy Higgins: The Second Act Tour and Ilbijeri Theatre Company’s rock’n’roll musical Big Name, No Blankets.
August
Popcorn at the ready folks, as you can expect a line-up of 250-plus films from 70 countries worldwide at one of the oldest film festivals in the world (along with Cannes and Berlin). It’s lights, camera and action as the red carpet is rolled out for a wall-to-wall celebration of International and Australian filmmaking, with star-studded events, world premiere screenings, headline features and filmmaker talks.
August - September
Signature pink and white banners start generating Brisbane Fest excitement mid-year, given September is Brissy’s month in the spotlight. The bulk of the action takes place around the CBD and South Bank, with gigs, theatre performances, food trucks and art exhibitions. It culminates with Riverfire, when fireworks explode over the Brisbane River.
September
Check out Bigsound in Fortitude Valley for the best beats and boogies Brisbane has to offer. Bigsound is not only a banging music concert – where Aussie artists like Flume, Spacey Jane, Tones and I, G Flip and The Temper Trap have rocked the stage – but is also the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest music industry gatherings, featuring conferences, special events and epic after-parties. At the 2024 Bigsound conference, certified R’n’B superstar Kelis delivered a major keynote and will be joined by well-known speakers and personalities from across the globe.
October
Every year, the Melbourne Fringe Festival makes jaws drop and eyes widen across the city with its unconventional line-up of independent theatre, comedy, drag, art, music and events. This year marks the 42nd iteration of the festival, which is known for championing big, radical ideas and being an all-out celebration of Melbourne at its weirdest. Not sure where to start? Head to the Festival Hub at Trades Hall which will host more than 20 shows playing each night, roaming acts and pop-up nightclubs. Prefer an open-air option? Festival Park will bring a Fringe-ified wonderland complete with circus acts, comedy, food and drinks to Queen Victoria Market.
October
Country music and camping? Sounds like the dream duo to us. Throw in some of Australia’s most legendary artists – rocking out on the doorstep of the reef and the rainforest – and it’s a done deal. If you’re hoping to get in on this winning combo, then you’ll want to snag tickets to Tropical North Queensland’s largest country music festival, Savannah in the Round. The three-day rodeo takes over the town of Mareeba, just an hour’s drive west of Cairns, with camping and glamping available so you can have the ultimate nights out.
October
If you’ve heard of South by Southwest (SXSW) before, you’ll know it’s a pretty wild place, where very big things happen. After 36 years of only ever being held in Texas, SXSW made history with its first-ever event in Sydney in 2023. The futuristic festival’s overseas debut manifested with seven days of insightful workshops, groundbreaking film premieres and secret pop-up parties that brought together 97,462 people from 41 countries. SXSW brought a similar offering to the city in 2024, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store next.
December - January
Woodford Folk Festival is kind of like Australia's own version of Woodstock, circa 1969. The summer of love has been going down on this fertile piece of reclaimed farmland for more than 35 years – and it doesn't seem to show any sign of stopping. Boasting more than 2,000 acts from a mix of local, national and international musicians and performing artists, this folksy, family-friendly festival is all about good times and great classic hits in a rainforest-fringed campground. Running for that awkward in-between time that bridges Christmas and New Year's Eve, this music and art festival is full of butterflies, rainforest birds and very yummy (and ethical) food. Pro tip: Bring gumboots, just in case.
December - January
Get ready to tear up the dance floor at Australia's biggest New Year's music festival in Barunah Plains (a 30-minute drive from Geelong, 90 minutes from Melbourne). Judging by 2024 headline acts, Fisher and Ice Spice, we have no doubts that the 2025 program will be jam-packed with international and local artists who'll soundtrack a NYE to remember.
December - January
Get weird in the wilderness over New Year's at this whopping four-day fiasco in the Central Coast, just an hour north of Sydney. Sure, Lost Paradise is another camping festival, but it’s taken great lengths to provide more than just a (killer) line-up of music with a packed program of talks, workshops and spiritual and wellness experiences. There’s a Hawkesbury River-connected stream to cool off in and a small forest of hammocks for swinging in the breeze.
December - January
Kicking off in Brisbane, then blazing through Perth and Adelaide, this epic series of one-day summer festivals is sure to make Sydneysiders and Melburnians sweat with envy. Grammy-nominated Aussie producer Fisher will return to home turf as a headliner in all three cities, and will be joined by a powerhouse line-up of international and local acts spanning dance, hip-hop and indie genres. Sounds like a wild and wacky festival we wanna be at.
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