Festivals and sport

I am positive most of us have never thought of Aussie’s as being a refined cultural race, while it can not offer brilliant renaissance paintings or intricate Gothic architecture, it has a youthful flavour all of its own.

Australia’s arts festivals attract people from all over the world to see mainstream and fringe drama, dance, music and visual arts. From the massive ‘Festival of Sydney’ hosting a number of open aired concerts and street theatre, to Melbourne’s ‘Comedy Festival’, the world’s biggest ‘Writers Festival’ and ‘International Festival’, the ‘Stompen Ground Festival’ held in Broome to celebrate Aboriginal arts and culture and ‘Barunga Wugularr Sports and Cultural Festival’ held near the lush Katherine region. There is a mix and mesh of colourful, fun loving festivals allowing travellers to experience the Australian style of life and influence from it’s valued multi-cultural society. Some more note worthy Australian festivals:

Big Day Out, Australia’s favourite National and International day of music, head banging and rampaging. Running from Jan to Feb it passes through the cities of Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

January 14 to 23 is Australia’s major Country Music Festival held every year in the city of Tamworth, NSW with famous Aussie stars including Lee Kernaghan, Adam Brand and John Williamson. Tamworth is a classic place to feel the real spirit of Aussie Characters from the city to the town.

The South Australian, Adelaide Fringe Festival is Australia’s biggest arts festival exhibiting a range of work across the genres including theatre, dance, circus, physical theatre, comedy, visual art, film and music. The Fringe is open to any and all artists who wish to join in, the show starts in February and finishes up in March exact dates are posted on-line.

The Bellingen Global Carnival held every October long weekend: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the Bellingen Showground. Bellingen is inland from the mid north-east coast city of Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. This festival is about magnanimity and true globalisation with a different theme every year.

The Fairbridge Festival is an annual festival of acoustic, folk, roots and world music at the Fairbridge Village near Perth, Western Australia.

The Illawarra Folk Club presents monthly folk music concerts and the renowned Illawarra Folk Festival at Jamberoo with over 400 international, national and local musicians, dancers, poets, storytellers, street artists in over 130 events.

Livid, one of Australia’s numerous Music festivals held in October with stages along the east coast - Brisbane Livid, Sydney Livid and Melbourne Livid.

The Northern Territory, Darwin International Guitar Biennial Festival celebrates the classical guitar masters of the world. The festivals feature an exciting series of concerts by leading international artists. The East Coast Blues and Roots Music Festival is an annual event held in Byron Bay, New South Wales. A famous line up of talented international and national artists including the likes of Ben Harper and Jack Johnson.

The Wollombi Festival began in Wollombi village and has now moved to Yarnteen, NSW allowing a collaboration with the Aboriginal community. The festival is held in June, a feature is the Corroboree, lantern procession and fire dancers, as well as concerts and visual arts.

Sporting fun includes Darwin’s Beer Can Regatta in August, where boat races are held of crafts constructed entirely of beer cans. Kulin Bush Races can be seen every October in the city of Kulin, WA. Where they race horses, camels, sheep and even dogs, this rural town epitomises the spirit of WA. More mainstream events include the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing day, the Australian Open Tennis championship held in Melbourne, the Australian Grand Prix also held in Melbourne, and the country stopping Melbourne Cup horse race on the first Tuesday in November.

Sport is Australia’s most influential religion and Aussie’s are world leaders in cricket, rugby league, rugby union, swimming, surfing and cycling. In many ways Australia seems to be the sports and outdoor activity capital of the world with it’s various climates available, throughout the year, it enables a wide range of activities to be carried out all year round.