Immerse yourself in the flavours of Australia’s top food festivals 2023 and unforgettable food and wine festival celebrations. Use this list to plan your food adventures and road trips for delectable experiences!
Plan ahead so your next road trip can include a food festival for double the fun. It’s a great way to get out into the regions and support local communities. Not only can you enjoy exploring a new region, but there’s also the chance to taste local foods and beverages and learn new cooking techniques. It could be the best fun you’ve ever had!
Do check the festival websites for the latest updated information on Australia’s top food festivals 2023
Australia’s Top Food Festivals 2023
January
Creative Harvest, Gippsland
January 28 and 29
Creative Harvest is an open food garden weekend on 28 and 29 January 2023, from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. 15 private food-producing gardens ranging from small suburban backyards to large family farms will host 30 artists and creatives, including beekeepers, winemakers, jam makers, jewellers, mosaic makers, painters, printmakers and sculptors. Some of Gippsland’s finest food and drink providers will also be in selected gardens. This year Creative Harvest is expanding to include four hands-on workshops. Visitors can buy tickets to learn skills in hot composting, preserving and fermenting homegrown produce, growing veggies from seed or extracting dye from local flora.
For more information, visit Creative Harvest
Stomp your heart out at Mirboo North Italian Festa
February
Mirboo North Italian Festa
February 12, Mirboo North, South Gippsland
Mirboo North Italian Festa is a free, family-friendly celebration of the proud Italian heritage of the region, bringing together a collection of your most-loved Italian food, produce, drinks and entertainment. 56 years ago, a group of Italian immigrants in Mirboo North commissioned a statue of St Paul, the patron saint of their hometown “Solarino” in Sicily, and had it shipped to Australia. The statue’s arrival was celebrated with the first St Paul’s Festival in 1966. More than 50 years later the Mirboo North Italian Festa has grown to one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the Gippsland events calendar, drawing thousands of people to the tiny hilltop village. There will be a line-up of over 30 authentic Italian food stalls, including traditional arancini, handmade gnocchi, salty tasty arrosticini meat skewers, pizza, calamari, spicy BBQ salsicce and the Italian favourite, pasta with all kinds of sauces. For dolce, Italian for dessert, indulge in gelato, zeppole, tiramisu, biscotti, cannoli and numerous sweet treats. Everything can be washed down with Italian beers, wines or an Aperol Spritz (or two).
For more visit Mirboo North Italian Festa
Melbourne Food & Wine Festival
March, Melbourne and beyond, Victoria
The full program is still to be announced, but more than 200 events usually take place in the giant Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, not only throughout the city of Melbourne but across the entire state of Victoria. Take a long lunch in the surrounds of the Australian bush, feed the mind with one of the many food and drink masterclasses on offer, and check out the events, drinks and art at the House of Food and Wine laneway venue in the city. That’s just for starters.
For more information, visit Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
Seafood on Spencer
March 25, Port Broughton, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
Seafood on Spencer focuses on seafood caught in the Spencer Gulf waters, with Gulf to Plate food experiences and a range of food and beverage providers.
For more information, visit Seafood on Spencer
Feast of the Senses
March 26, Innisfail, south of Cairns.
Take your hearty appetite and head to the Cassowary Coast, south of Cairns, for Feast of the Senses. Held in the art deco town of Innisfail, this three-day festival showcases the Cassowary Coast’s fresh and unique local produce. Think exotic fruits and locally grown meat, seafood, spices and wine. Celebrate the 5th anniversary of the World’s Longest Banana Split, which was a whopping 8.04km! Hop aboard Snapping Tours for a tropical cocktail cruise, taste the tropics at a sit-down dinner at the Crown Hotel or explore local producers on the Trans North Northern Food Trail or Norfoam Southern Food Trail. Or simply browse of an array of food stalls, listen to live entertainment or take the little ‘uns to the kid’s zone.
For more information, visit Feast of the Senses
Echo Festival Tasmania ©NatashaMulhall
The East Coast Harvest Odyssey ECHO Festival
March 31 – April 2, Swansea, Tasmania
The 2023 ECHO program offers a diverse range of experiences across culture and arts, food, science and nature centred around this year’s theme, Waterbirds. The iconic Native Bounty Feast will be a three-course degustation of local produce prepared by acclaimed Tasmanian Chef Megan Quill, with an interactive program of entertainment. Quill and her team will be cooking up a delightful mix of local indigenous ingredients with a Mediterranean spin.
For more information, visit ECHO
Australia’s top food festivals 2023. Photo by Rebecca Orlov, Orlov Design Co on Unsplash
April
Orange F.O.O.D. Week
March 24 to April 2, 2023, Orange, New South Wales
The Food Basket of NSW comes alive at this food and wine festival, highlighting the finest fresh produce and cool climate wines. Now in its 29th year, the Orange F.O.O.D Week festival is Australia’s longest-running regional food and wine festival and delivers a rich tapestry of eight signature and 100 satellite events held over 10 days each autumn during the local harvest and vintage season.
For more information on the next festival, visit Orange Food Week.
Enjoy an immersive cocktail program at the Melbourne Cocktail Festival. Photo by Adam Jaime on Unsplash
Melbourne Cocktail Festival
TBC April, 2023, Melbourne, Victoria
This is an immersive, five-day cocktail journey through Melbourne’s bars, restaurants and spaces, with the industry’s best and brightest. The program caters for industry professionals and cocktail lovers alike with workshops, guided tours, tastings, seminars, art installations and activations.
For more visit Melbourne Cocktail Festival
ECHO Festival
March 31 – April 2, 2023, Swansea and Bicheno, East Coast Tasmania
Celebrate old and new harvest traditions on the East Coast of Tasmania at ECHO Festival. Held in a rural setting between the seaside towns of Swansea and Bicheno, this is a boutique festival with a curated program. Meet diverse chefs, winemakers storytellers, performers, musicians, installation artists and scientists. What do they have in common? They are all passionate about food and Tasmania. The theme for 2022 is Kelp Forests.
More information ECHO Festival
Fresh Hop Beer Festival
April 14 -15, 2023, New Norfolk, Tasmania
The Fresh Hop Beer Festival celebrates the annual Tasmanian hop harvest and is a great opportunity for beer lovers and craft brewers to sample different fresh-hopped first harvest beers from around the state. It’s a weekend of live music, food trucks and fresh hop-related activities.
More about Fresh Hop Beer Festival
Tasting Australia
3 May – 12 May 2023, Adelaide, South Australia
Get ready for the ultimate gastronomic experience as Tasting Australia, Australia’s premier eating, drinking, and culinary tourism festival makes its highly anticipated return in 2024. From May 3rd to May 12th, there will be a 10-day extravaganza of flavours and culture. Following its remarkable success in 2023, drawing over 68,000 visitors to the CBD hub Town Square in Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga, the festival will continue to grow in 2024 as a celebration of South Australia’s culinary excellence and showcasing the region as a global food destination. Tasting Australia unites renowned chefs, beverage artisans, and industry trailblazers worldwide, collaborating with local talents to highlight the state’s exceptional produce.
For more information, visit Tasting Australia
Grampians Grape Escape
May 5 – 7, 2023, Halls Gap, Victoria
Nestled in one of Australia’s most beautiful natural backdrops, the Grampians Grape Escape in Halls Gap is a food and wine festival weekend of regional wine, food and music. This iconic wine, food and music festival has celebrated Western Victoria’s producers and makers for 30 years with wine poured straight from the winemaker, and produce direct from the producer. So gather your crew and explore a village of more than 100 stalls that will indulge all their senses, from exhibitor masterclasses and cooking demonstrations to live music and entertaining guest chefs.
More information – Grampians Grape Escape
TrailGaze
April 22 and 23, 2023, Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail, North West Tasmania
TrailGraze will highlight the local farmers, makers and growers on the Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail in Tasmania’s North West. Producers will host workshops, tastings, behind the scenes tours and guest chef collaborations.
More on TrailGraze
Australia’s Top Food Festivals 2023 – Mary Valley GourMay festival
May
GourMay Mary Valley Festival
April 30 to June 3, 2023, Mary Valley, Sunshine Coast, Queensland
One of Australia’s richest food bowls, the Mary Valley – just north of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland – is set to celebrate its outstanding produce in the Mary Valley GourMay Festival throughout the month of May. European settlers may have first flocked to the Mary Valley and Gympie in the mid-19th century for the prospect of gold, but today, it is golden fruit, vegetables, dairy, herbs and meat that deliver the region’s earthly treasures.
The Mary Valley is located just an hour’s drive north of Sunshine Coast and two hours from Brisbane Airport. With fertile land and microclimates, the Mary Valley can produce everything from traditional dairy, beef, pineapples, avocados and limes to exotic persimmons and feijoas. Even the Spanish grape tempranillo has found a home in the Valley.
GourMay Mary Valley is a celebration of the farmers, producers and creators whose hard work and passion bring flavours to the plate. It’s a great opportunity to meet the people behind the produce, who put joy on the plate. It’s a month full of events that will appeal to lovers of good food and authenticity.
Festival Day will be held on Saturday 6 May, in Imbil Town Square and Rail Park, providing a perfect introduction to have an initial ‘Taste’ of the Mary Valley. There will be talks, cooking demonstrations, exhibitions, and competitions. Reflecting the Mary Valley’s role in the food chain in the GourMay Garden, the Macadamia Conservation Trust will share the story of the wild macadamia and how all macadamia trees can be traced back to the area. Witjuti Grub nursery owner Veronica Cougan will explore growing edible natives. Rebecca Dart will share her knowledge on the benefits of edible bamboo, and Amber Scott, from Kandanga Farm, will explain the importance of Farming with Nature. The main event will be a Ready Steady/ Mystery Box ‘cook off’ between local foodies. The contestants will be given a box with a couple of items, including a voucher to spend in the market, and ‘Sunshine Coast Foodie’ Martin Duncan will set the timer going for contestants to create a dish that will be judged for the title of “GourMay Cook of the Year.” Imbil’s exciting new Wild Vine Café will host Mary Valley’s Boozy Brunch as well as a Cocktails and Canapes session in the newly created village gardens, which also chart the history of the township.
More on Mary Valley GorMay TrailGraze
Sack races at Roberston Potato Festival, one of Australia’s top food festivals 2023
The Robertson Potato Festival
May 6 and 7, 2023, Robertson Showground, Robertson, New South Wales
Chip chip hooray! The home of the Big Potato will once again be the staging ground for the Robertson Potato Festival, a chance for spud lovers to celebrate all things potato! Visitors can be a spec-tater and learn from the very best of local and national chefs with potato-based cooking demonstrations from Paul West (ABC’s RiverCottage), Eilish Maloney (The What If Society), Stefano Marvello (Italian Cooking Experience), and Matty Roberts (Eschalot Restaurant).
Local distillery SoHi Spirits will have samples and bottles of their Potato Crisp Vodka. Made for martinis and a side of crisps, SoHi uses local potato royalty to ensure their vodka has more texture, viscosity and crunch than their competitors.
‘Hessians on the Field’, the fashion show unlike any other, has a new ‘Pets on the Field’ category. Contestants’ clothes are made from the humble potato sack. Prizes include two Singer sewing machines, cash prizes from Hill Family Potatoes, and the chance to be dubbed the ‘hottest of hot’ potatoes.
The Spud-a-Dome will be hosting a feast of events and competitions over the weekend, including mash eating competitions, peeling, stacking and picking events. Rides will also be available for all the ‘small fries’ as well as free face painting and an animal petting and feeding farmyard. For those wanting a bird’s eye view of the spud-tacular event, scenic helicopter rides will be running.
More on Robertson Potato Festival
Taste of Kakadu
May 13-21, 2023, Kakadu, Northern Territory
A cultural food festival 65,000 years in the making, Kakadu National Park will host a 10-day food festival program of locally inspired food exploration and events. Indulge all your senses with pop-up dining experiences, traditional ground oven feasts, handcrafted menus from celebrity chefs, forage walks with traditional owners, canape cruises, and ancestral stories and cultural workshops.
For more information about the festival, visit Taste of Kakadu
Enjoy Greek Baklava at Paniyiri, one of Australia’s top food festivals 2023.
Paniyiri
May 20 and 21, South Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland
A lazy afternoon basking in the sun, laughing with friends, and drinking wine, while smashing plates of Greek food? It can only be the legendary Paniyiri Greek Festival in Musgrave Park for the 47th time over 50 years. Did we mention the food? Paniyiri is all about the food, with 20 food stalls serving an incredible array of authentic food from 11 different Greek regions, and where no one judges you if you eat multiple plates of BBQ calamari, souvlaki, haloumi and honey puffs.
This year’s theme is ‘Picnic at Paniyiri’ with attendees able to purchase a Paniyiri keep-sake picnic blanket at the event or BYO blanket to set up their spot for the day of Greek feasting and drinking and all the festivities of the event.
This is a day and night celebration of Greek dance, music, and mythology, where you can channel your inner Dionysus, the OG God of wine while enjoying a Greek wine tasting. Or discover Greek beers or treat yourself to Greek-inspired cocktails. Live out your Greek fantasies without needing your passport. It’s easily Brisbane’s best party in a park. Opa!
Visit Paniyiri for all the deets and tips on how to #partylikeagreek
Good Food & Wine Show
May 19 – 21, 2023, Melbourne
A fantastic day out sampling the latest foods, wines and home products. The show features celebrity chefs, inspiring masterclasses and hundreds of local and international exhibitors.
For more information, visit Good Food & Wine Show.
North Coast Festival of Flavour
TBC June, 2023, From the NSW Northern Rivers to the Barrington Coast
Feast at long lunches, seafood cruises, flame-grilled feasts, and meet top producers, brewers, restauranteurs and winemakers in a series of events over a weekend to remember.
For more information, visit North Coast Festival of Flavour
Plenty to enjoy at the Fraser Coast’s Relish food and wine festival.
June
Relish Food & Wine
June 3, 2023, Mary River Parklands, Maryborough, Fraser Coast, Queensland
Expect local food, gourmet tastings, workshops and a feast of local cuisine in the heritage streets of Maryborough, Queen’s Park and Mary River Parklands with a full seven-hour program.
For more information, visit Relish Food & Wine
Night Noodle Markets Brisbane
TBC June, 2023, Brisbane CBD Botanic Gardens
The Brisbane Night Noodle Markets is back at Brisbane’s City Botanic Gardens. Entrance is free, but you need to book your tickets online. It’s the same market that has been held in the Forecourt in front of the Performing Arts Centre on the Brisbane River in previous years.
Find all the details here – Brisbane Night Noodle Markets
One of Australia’s top food festivals 2023, the Hampton Festival is a vibrant celebration of local food production.
Hampton Festival
May 21, 2023, Hampton, Queensland
Held at Chapman Park, just 32 kilometres north of Toowoomba, Hampton Festival is known for its celebration of the region’s fresh produce and plentiful artistic talent. This year’s event will feature live music, a fresh produce market, an art exhibition with over 70 market stalls, food and wine exhibitors and restaurants. Visitors to this year’s festival can shop from an onsite fresh produce market, taste and buy local wines, cheese, spirits and craft beer and savour the regional flavours of our many onsite cafes, restaurants and cottage industries. The festival will also feature a Growers On The Green precinct, where locals can meet and interact with regional producers, hear their paddock to plate stories and watch live demonstrations.
For more information, visit Hampton Festival
Truffle Festival Canberra
TBC June to mid-August, 2023, Canberra
The Truffle Festival Canberra Region, presented by DOMA Hotels has a packed program of growing workshops, truffle hunts, food and wine pairings, signature menus, cooking classes and chef demonstrations across the ACT and southern NSW until the end of the truffle season in mid-August. “The festival is in its 14th year and has been hugely popular with visitors from Sydney since it began due to the easy three-hour drive from the city centre to some of the country’s best truffle farms,” festival president Dick Groot Obbink said.
Manjimup Truffle and Wine Festival
June 23 to 25, 2023, Manjimup, Western Australia
Manjimup Truffle and Wine Festival showcases local producers and makers with truffle tours, dog hunts, gourmet degustation dinners, wine tastings, farm visits, and wine masterclasses.
Truffle lovers can take a discovery tour across the Manjimup and Pemberton regions. You will find bookable truffle-themed experiences at many venues, including Truffle Hill Wines, Ampersand Estates, Hidden River Estate, Pemberley of Pemberton, Tall Timbers Manjimup, and Stonebarn Estate. The Manjimup-Pemberton community will host satellite events at multiple venues during the day and evening, showcasing the abundance of truffles and wines available.
More information: Manjimup Truffle and Wine Festival
St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend
TBC June, 2023, St Lawrence, Central Queensland
Join chef Matt Golinski for a 200-person long table lunch using the finest regional produce or sample native bush foods at Flakyard Fine Bush Dining, a six-course menu matched with non-alcoholic beverages or lower intervention wines created by Nik Flack. There will also be gardening sessions with Costa Georgiadis, cooking demonstrations, art workshops and cultural experiences, bird watching, wetlands tours, and environmental presentations, with live entertainment for the whole family.
For the latest updates, visit St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend
Australia’s top food festivals 2023.
Truffle Kerfuffle
23 -25 June, 2023, Manjimup, Western Australia
Held in the most prolific truffle-growing region in the Southern Hemisphere, the festival is a true celebration of Manjimup’s prized black truffles, sought-after by chefs across the globe for their consistent high quality, impossible-to-describe taste and heady, earthy aroma. Truffle lovers can still get their delectable fix of alluring truffles during the season (from May to August) by ordering direct from truffle farmers, as well as stunning Southern Forests produce and wine direct from wineries
For more information, visit Truffle Kerfuffle
Good Food & Wine Show
June 24 -26 Sydney
A fantastic day out sampling the latest foods, wines and home products. The show features celebrity chefs, inspiring masterclasses and hundreds of local and international exhibitors.
For more information visit Good Food & Wine Show.
Scenic Rim Eat Local Week
TBC June – July 2023, Scenic Rim, Queensland
One of Australia’s top food festivals, Scenic Rim Eat Local Week features events from Canungra to The Lost World, Beaudesert to Boonah, Tamborine Mountain to Kalbar, Scenic Rim Eat Local Week is the ultimate backstage pass to the farms, wineries and food stories of this extraordinary region. This event has grown to become one of Australia’s most authentic food festivals and this year will be attended by an army of eat local champions who heed the call from across the road, and across the country.
For more information, visit Eat Local Week
There’s plenty to enjoy at the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival, a not-to-be-missed top Australian food festival 2023.
July
Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival
July 14 – 15, 2023, Huon Valley, Tasmania
WASAIL AWAY! Venture down to the Huon Valley to Willie Smith’s Apple Shed to gather around the fire, dance and feast to celebrate the region’s rich apple-growing history. Dress up in your finest tatters, bring your pots and pans and make a noise to scare away the evil spirits from the orchard so that the next season brings abundance.
Visiting this festival is a real experience, and I enjoyed it immensely. The Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival is fun, with plenty of wonderful Tasmanian food and quirky local traditions.
Held in the deep south of Tasmania in the dead of winter, the bacchanalian Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival celebrates storytelling, winter feasting, and centuries-old pagan traditions. It’s staged near the village of Ranelagh in the heart of the apple-growing country, about 30 minutes drive south of Hobart.
Explore three days of otherworldly delights: irresistible local produce, artisanal cider and spirits, blazing bonfires and Australia’s peak Storytelling Slam. Revellers drink and dance to eclectic folk music around bonfires, and limber up for the wassail, an old pagan practice to usher in a good harvest. Following flaming torches, wassailing folks dispel evil spirits by beating drums and pots and pans, then “awaken” the apple trees with the traditional wassail song and bless the trees with cider.
The food and wine festival starts with a welcome ceremony from Tasmanian Aboriginals to collectively release negative energy, cleanse the spirit and make way for the new, and culminates in the burning of a 15-metre wicker effigy named Big Willie. A highlight is the Storytellers Cup, a much-loved festival tradition giving folks a chance to connect, reflect and learn from each other through the art of sharing spoken tales
For more information on the festival, visit Huon Valley Mid Winter Fest
The Curated Plate
July 28 to August 6, 2023, Sunshine Coast, Queensland
The Curated (side) Plate is back showcasing the best Sunshine Coast food and beverages. Local restaurants, farms and food experiences will be involved.
More about The Curated Plate
Tassie Scallop Fiesta
TBC July, 2023, Bridport Tasmania
Where else but in Tasmania can you celebrate the opening of the scallop season with a gastronomic festival rich in flavour and all things that live under the sea? Learn more about the area’s maritime history, find out what to fish and what not to fish and watch live cooking demonstrations using the hero ingredient of the day, the humble scallop!
For more information on the festival, visit Tassie Scallop Fiesta
Moreton Bay Food & Wine Festival showcases the region’s produce.
Moreton Bay Food & Wine Festival
August 4 and 6, 2023, Redcliffe, Brisbane, Queensland
Moreton Bay Food & Wine Festival gives you more reasons to spend a weekend by the water. With Moreton Bay as its backdrop, this free festival precinct winds its way along Redcliffe Parade with top-notch bites and sips and a flavour-packed entertainment program. Discover what’s on the menu in the Moreton Bay Region.
For more information, visit Moreton Bay Food & Wine
Salt House Food & Wine Festival
August 5, Salt House, Cairns
Make your way to the Salt House to sink your teeth into one of Cairns’ biggest Food and Wine festivals. Sip on your favourite cocktails and taste tongue-tingling drinks by distillers, brewers and winemakers. Pair your tipples with great food, live music and more. Kids and under-18s are welcome to this event until later in the evening, so why not bring along the whole family?
For more information, visit Salt House Food and Wine Festival
August
Taste Bundaberg Festival
August 4 to 13, 2023, Bundaberg, Queensland
The flavours that make the region shine for ten tantalising days during Taste Bundaberg Festival in August, with a smorgasbord of food-focused events. There will be tours, tastings markets, a degustation dinner, and cooking demonstrations, including a dessert masterclass, chocolate-themed workshops and a virtual trail of the best places to get a sugar rush. There’s also a range of family-friendly events, including a picnic under the orchard of Macadamias Australia and Taste Bundaberg Farmers Market at the Bundaberg Recreational Precinct.
For more information on the festival, visit Taste Bundaberg Festival
Tasmania has a week-long whisky celebration. Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
Hervey Bay Seafood Festival
TBC August, 2023, Hervey Bay, Queensland
This top food festival is a day of local seafood, regional wines, beers and fabulous music in a shady parkland by the seashore. It is the only seafood festival in Australia managed by the men and women who catch it. Take a chair or a picnic blanket, celebrate, relax and feast with the seafood industry in Seafront Oval, Urangan.
For more information, visit Hervey Bay Seafood Festival
Tasmanian Whisky Week
August 7 – 13, 2023, Hobart, Tasmania
This is Tasmania’s week-long, state-wide celebration of whisky and the people who make it. Connoisseurs and those who appreciate a wee dram can visit renowned local distilleries, including McHenry Distillery, Lark Distillery, and Sullivan’s Cove Distillery. Visitors will see firsthand why Tasmania is emerging as the boutique whisky capital of Australia. The festival events occur in some of Tasmania’s most picturesque bars, barns, stables and restaurants. There are exclusive masterclasses and behind-the-scenes distillery tours. Access to unreleased whiskies makes this an exciting event where visitors can meet the makers and taste hundreds of single malts and blends. There’s a reason that Tasmanian is home to internationally acclaimed gold medal whiskies, so go and find out why.
For more information, visit Tasmanian Whisky Week
Taste Port Douglas Food & Drink Festival
August 10 – 13
Enjoy the food, drinks and lifestyle that have made Tropical North Queensland a popular holiday destination. In 2022 there will be a four-day program led by event founder and director chef Spencer Patrick. The festival returned in 2021 after a four-year break.
More information here Taste Port Douglas
Maitland Aroma Coffee and Chocolate Festival
August 12 and 13, 2023, Maitland, New South Wales
The Aroma Festival is a coffee and chocolate affair that aims to ward off the winter chill with the best local coffee roasters, and a delectable range of chocolates. Enjoy wines, desserts, local cuisine and fresh produce through exhibitors, demonstrations, displays, coffee roasters, market stalls, children’s activities, and live entertainment.
For more information, visit Maitland Aroma Coffee and Chocolate Festival
Head to Kingaroy for BaconFest, a top Australian food festival.
BaconFest
August 18 – 20, 2023, Kingaroy, Queensland
More than 15,000 people are expected to ‘bring home the bacon’ after visiting the southeast Queensland town of Kingaroy in August. Kingaroy BaconFest, a celebration of all things pork, will be held from August 18-20. Organisers expect a pigger than ever turn out to enjoy the annual event in the South Burnett town. Bacon lovers should pre-purchase their tickets online. One of Australia’s top food festivals 2023 for bacon lovers.
More information: Kingaroy BaconFest
How many strawberries can you eat at Redfest? Photo by Artur Rutkowski
September
Redfest Strawberry Festival
September 1 – 2, Cleveland, Brisbane, Queensland
How many strawberries can you eat? Whether you’re up for the World-Famous Strawberry Eating Competition or keen to indulge at your own pace, the RedFest Strawberry Festival is the place for strawberry lovers. There’ll be strawberry skewers, strawberry ice cream, chocolate-covered delights and produce sourced from across Redlands Coast. As one of Australia’s longest-running community festivals, Redfest offers a jam-packed weekend of fun, food and entertainment for everyone in the family.
For more information about the festival, visit Redfest Strawberry Festival
Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers’ Festival of Food and Wine
September 4 to 30, Toowoomba
Enjoy a month of flavours and flowers in Toowoomba with an exciting event calendar.
More information at Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.
East Coast Oysters at one of Australia’s top food festivals 2023.
Great Eastern Wine Week
TBC September, East Coast Tasmania
Great Eastern Wine Week, Tasmania’s largest food and wine event program, returns to East Coast Tasmania this September with its most impressive lineup to date. After two years of border restrictions impacting incoming tourism, a raft of new culinary and cultural experiences will be included as part of this year’s event. Spanning 221km of Tasmania’s pristine eastern coastline, the event will showcase the best of the region’s culinary and cultural experiences and unveils the hiddens gems of East Coast Tasmania!
Key experiences on offer include:
- Black Tie and Blundstone cocktail party at the new Devil’s Corner Cellar Door;
- The Battle of the Vineyards at Furneaux Restaurant;
- High Tea with perfectly matched wines at Craigie Knowe Vineyard;
- Great Eastern Wine Cruise with Wineglass Bay Cruises;
- ‘Wild Abundance’ cooking with game workshop at Twamley Farm;
- Mayfield Estate’s Grazing Walk with Tasman Sea Salt.
For more information, visit Great Eastern Wine Trail
High Tea with Perfectly Matched Wines. Craigie Knowe Vineyard @ Puddlehub
Babinda Harvest Festival
TBC October, Babinda, North Queensland
There’s a Harvest Festival Queen, High Tea, Duck Dash, and Tractor Pull. This festival was first held in 1962.
For more information on this festival, visit Babinda Harvest Festival
Good Food & Wine Show
October 27 – 29, Brisbane
A fantastic day out sampling the latest foods, wines and home products. The show features celebrity chefs, inspiring masterclasses and hundreds of local and international exhibitors.
For more information, visit Good Food & Wine Show.
One of Australia’s top food festivals 2023
November
Western Australia Gourmet Escape
November TBC, Swan Valley, Perth and Margaret River, Western Australia
Enjoy ten days of extraordinary events across the regions showcasing Western Australia’s premium produce and wine at one of Australia’s top food festivals.,. Learn to cook from celebrated international and Australian culinary talent, visit gourmet villages and feast on fresh produce that inspires and satisfies you. Events include wine tastings and tea parties, private dinners and masterclasses. There’s something for every foodie at this renowned festival.
For more information on this festival, visit Gourmet Escape
Wild Harvest Seafood Festival is one of Australia’s top food festivals 2023
Wild Harvest Seafood Festival
TBC November, Mallacoota, Victoria
The inaugural 2019 Wild Harvest festival put Mallacoota on the map as one of Victoria’s best off-the-beaten-path destinations. The festival returned in 2022 to showcase some of Australia’s freshest and most outstanding local seafood, produce, beer and wine amidst the beautiful surroundings of the Wilderness Coast.
This three-day festival celebrates Mallacoota’s history and connection to the ocean. It’s also a rare opportunity to purchase and taste sea urchins and whelks, the abalone for which Mallacoota is famous. Oysters and mussels from nearby coastal communities also will be on sale. A free open-air Wild Harvest Seafood Market, as well as dinner and tasting events hosted by nationally-renowned seafood chefs and food writers, are at the heart of the event. Sailor’s Grave’s urchin-infused beer is sure to attract plenty of comments from beer aficionados.
More information at Wild Harvest Seafood Festival.
More Australia’s Top Food Festivals 2023
Australia’s top food festivals 2023 is a constantly evolving list. Keep checking as you might find your favourite food festival has just been added!
