Imagine a world where flowers grow as far as the eye can see, ranging in every shade of the rainbow, where kids run freely, music plays loudly, and Spring is the only season present. You no longer have to imagine, as Floriade is back for another year, returning bigger and better than ever before, with the theme of 2023 being Floral Wonderland.
Each year, over 1 million flowers come to bloom in the biggest Spring celebration in Australia, at the beautiful sight that is Floriade, spanning 12,400m2 of inner-city parkland in Canberra’s Commonwealth Park. This mega flower festival began in 1988 as a one-off floral tribute to mark Australia’s Bicentenary and Canberra’s 75th anniversary, but it turned out that the event was so successful that it has returned to Canberra’s leafy shores pretty much every year since.
This year’s festival will run from Saturday 16 September to Sunday 15 October and is set to welcome visitors to the floral wonderland featuring more than one million blooms and a diverse program of entertainment, displays, workshops, markets and more.
A few other things to get excited about for this year’s line-up of entertainment include:
Meet Jamie Durie at Floriade – Floriade is excited to welcome international award winning Australian designer and passionate environmentalist Jamie Durie! On Sunday 17 September, the international award winning Australian designer speak at Stage 88 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm to share his love of all things gardens, design and sustainability. Jamie will also meet and greet the Floriade crowds in the Floriade Wonderland Spiegeltent from 10am-11am and again 2pm-3pm.
See Floriade’s Dark Side – This year, NightFest will showcase many local and interstate performers including legendary artists Vika and Linda. The sisters will be performing on Stage 88 at NightFest on Sunday, 1 October from 8pm.Additionalt, three stages will be live each night featuring Canberra based acts including Monica Moore, Finley Geach, Harry Cleverdonand Ben Drysdale. NightFest will help explore Floriade’s dark side with the Wonderland Spiegeltent running two shows per night of Popcorn Underground, a world class cabaret. The adults only show requires an additional ticket for entry which can be added when purchasing NightFest tickets online.
Kids entertainment – During the day, kids will be able enjoy Circus Wonderland: A Neverland Adventure which will take them back in time to Neverland with JM Barries classic story about Peter Pan, Wendy, Tinker Bell, Pirates, Mermaids and a ticking crocodile! The Circus Wonderland show will be on from 23 September – 8 October. You can also bring the kids to Floriade during the school holidays and enjoy the popular kids potting up workshops and live entertainment from Australian children’s band The Beanies
Floriade Satellite Site – Lanyon Homestead – This year, Floriade is growing and beyond excited to announce the introduction of the first Satellite Site at Lanyon Homestead! Here you can enjoy beautiful blooms, entertainment and activities including Weekend Garden Tours, Grow Your Garden Plant Fair, Spring Wonderland Picnic Concert and more! Entry to Lanyon Homestead is free but some events may be ticketed.
Entry to the festival is free and the gates are open from 9:30am to 5.30pm daily. A full program of entertainment and events is available on the Floriade website.