Mark your calendar: if you like free ice cream, as everyone should, then you have a date with a Ben & Jerry's store in April. Each year, the dessert brand chooses one day per year to give everyone a treat without paying a cent. In 2024, that day is Tuesday, April 16. If there's one thing this chain loves above all else, it's the obvious: ice cream in a huge array of ridiculously named flavours. It's the brand behind Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and The Tonight Dough — and has been responsible for Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yoghurt, Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream and Schweddy Balls, too. But, to the delight of your sweet treat-loving tastebuds, on Free Cone Day it loves giving away free scoops just as much. The occasion is exactly what it sounds like: a day where your ice cream is on the house. It ran annually since 1979 until the pandemic, then took a break for obvious reasons — returning in 2023 for the first time since 2019, and now backing it up in 2024. Here's how it works: if you adore ice cream as much as Ben & Jerry's adores ice cream, then you just need to hit up your local participating store (which is most stores) between 12–8pm. You can choose whichever flavour you like, and you can also line up for a free cone as many times as you like within that eight-hour period. Free Cone Day is happening Australia-wide — worldwide, too, in more than 35 countries — at both Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores and its Hoyts outlets. Victorians have St Kilda, Flinders Lane and Burwood East stores to choose from, plus some Hoyts cinemas.
