Your Guide to NSW's Regional Events and Festivals
From floral-filled fields to fabulous festivals, it's time to escape the hustle and bustle of Sydney and discover greater NSW.
Your Guide to NSW's Regional Events and Festivals
in partnership with
From floral-filled fields to fabulous festivals, it's time to escape the hustle and bustle of Sydney and discover greater NSW.
Oh we love cities. Make no mistake. But venture beyond the borders and go further out and you'll discover a haul of destinations rich with unique events and adventures worth road tripping for.
Whether your interests are culinary, cultural or the creative arts, we've teamed up with Destination NSW to curate a guide to the biggest regional events and festivals to keep you entertained during the cooler months.
From floral displays to food-packed fiestas, fruit picking and free live music performances, it's time to fuel up the car, fire up your Spotify playlist and settle in to discover the best that New South Wales has to offer.
Explore the best of NSW's Regional Events and Festivals at the Destination NSW website.
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Get Ugged up, rugged up and ready to embrace all things chilly at the Bathurst Winter Festival, a two-week event that celebrates the magic of the colder months. Spread across the town, much of the festival is free — and a good excuse for a weekend away to regional NSW.
Located three hours northwest of Sydney, the city of Bathurst will light up in a blaze of colour as interactive installations are projected on the town’s historic architecture. Head to the Winter Playground where you can enjoy live music, comfort food, hot drinks (including the sweet marshmallow-topped variety), wine events, show rides and an outdoor ice skating rink.
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Utes are as Aussie as Vegemite, meat pies and nicknames that end with the letter o, and a trip to the Deni Ute Muster is a perfect excursion for those keen for a classic Australian road trip.
The annual event held in the NSW Riverina town of Deniliquin is a celebration of the iconic vehicle. But you don’t need to be a rev-head or even own your own ute to attend. In addition to more Hiluxes than you can poke a stick at, you can catch some major music headliners, fresh food pop-ups and two nights of camping between Friday, 29 and Saturday, 30 September.
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Given its location on NSW’s Sapphire Coast, the Wanderer Festival isn’t just a festival, but an epic road trip in the spirit of its name. But, it promises to deliver an excellent final destination for road trippers seeking a weekend away that’s big on tunes, tasty treats and heaps of market stalls.
The three-day event is held in picturesque Pambula Beach and features a genre-diverse lineup of more than 70 music and art performances including Ocean Alley, Django Django, The Jungle Giants, Thelma Plum and UK indie-rock luminaries Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball of Gomez.
As well as tunes, attendees can look forward to performances of the comedy, theatre and circus variety too. Off-stage activations include craft markets and food stores packed with a range of stalls that focus on regional produce and local beer, wine and spirits.
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Blooming gardens, citrus fruits and delicious local food is all part of the annual Griffith Spring Fest, held in, of course, the town of Griffith in southern NSW. Headlining the event will be the Garden Festival, where green thumbs can wander through the six pretty landscaped places, created and nurtured by local gardeners.
If you can make it to the launch party on Friday 13 October (and we highly recommend you do) you’ll be invited to to tuck into the super-sized communal paella that will be whipped up on the day. There will be more than 50 unique Citrus Sculptures which will line Banna Avenue for two weeks, created from 100,000-plus locally grown oranges and grapefruit, proof that when life gives you lemons in Griffith, you transform them into robots, reclining chooks or a giant giraffe.
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Forget grey. Come October-November, the Northern Rivers of NSW will be covered in 50 shades of purple during Grafton’s annual showcase of violet-hued blooms.
With roots as the oldest floral festival in the country, the Grafton Jacaranda Festival knows a thing or two about celebrating one of Australia’s most-loved flowers. And, for one week between Friday, 27 October and Sunday, 5 November visitors and local alike will line the main street of Grafton to watch the annual float parade, settle in for a round of drag queen bingo (complete with lavender eyeshadow), enjoy a lazy long lunch underneath a floral lilac canopy or watch the beautiful trees of See Park illuminated as the sun goes down,
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It’s time to mark your calendars for the National Cherry Festival, the ultimate celebration of all things cherry. This annual event is set to take place in Young, NSW (the cherry capital of Australia!) from Friday, December 1 to Sunday, December 3. Stone fruit season, baby!
In case you’ve never been, the National Cherry Festival is a three-day extravaganza that brings together cherry growers and enthusiasts from all over Australia. Get ready to indulge in delicious cherry treats, including fresh cherries, cherry pies, cherry ice cream and more. You can also enjoy cooking demonstrations, cherry-picking competitions, a seed-spitting comp and the Cherry Blossom Walk that showcases the stunning cherry blossoms that bloom during the Young summer.
Young is a four-hour drive out of Sydney so be sure to book local accommodation in advance and get the full weekender experience.
For more information on musicals and other events happening in NSW throughout 2023, visit the Destination NSW website.
