Tropical North Region Guides Attractions Events in Queensland

The Annual Babinda community harvest festival (2010 is it's 47th year) is traditionally to celebrate the sugar cane harvest. Nowadays, it's an opportunity for locals to get together and raise money for various community activities through stalls and raffles.

Harvest Queen Quest: confidence building for young women and learn more about a role in community affairs. Fundraising for the festival, hosting
Harvest Cabaret, attendance at local festival events.

Harvest Cabaret 22 May 2010: live band and bar.

Festival Day 29 May: Grand Parade in Munro Street - floats and procession. The inaugural revival of Babinda Boulders Burst Fun Run (approximately 10 kilometres) starts from 2.30 p.m. from the township to Boulders and finishes at the showgrounds.

Showgrounds from 3.30 p.m. free kids' activities, chopper lolly drop, pony rides and show rides. Community stalls and displays; local produce; historic machinery; hot food, drinks, icecreams; fireworks show; live band and bar till midnight.

UMI Arts bi-annual cultural summit and celebration provides an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from across Far North Queensland to come together to share stories, discuss pathways to success, and identify ways to celebrate and strengthen culture. The event includes dynamic forums, exhibitions, performances and community activities. "Big Talk One Fire” is a FREE event, and is open to people of all backgrounds.

UMI Arts is the peak Indigenous arts and cultural organisation for Far North Queensland supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to participate in the maintenance, preservation and protection of cultural identity.

The second annual Cairns Blues Festival is a two day event jam packed with the best blues Australia has to offer. Fogarty Park on the Cairns Esplanade will come alive with two stages of non stop music from dawn to dusk for two days on the Queensland Labor Day weekend. There will be a kids area and market stalls of all sorts, bars and heaps more.

Plan your visit to Cairns around the Cairns Show dates. This will be a great opportunity to experience an iconic Australian Event - The Local Show.

Displays of all different types of agriculture and farming animals as well as machinery, arts, craft, horticulture and home economics will all be there. The Show will run for three days of non-stop excitement. There will be so many surprises, you will be sorry if you miss it! Not only are there some fabulous new events but there will be great displays as well as all the normal competitions.

Come along and have fun!

In 2010, Cairns will house a new world class tennis facility and to celebrate the official opening, a high level tennis tournament including players from the top 100 to 200 in the world will battle it out for major prize money. Other activities will surround this event including a gala dinner with a special guest appearance by a well known tennis celebrity, fun days, and hot shots demonstrations.

The Feast of the Senses is a two week festival that tantalises the five senses of taste, sight, touch, sound, and smell with the treasures of the Tropics. Activities in 2010 will incorporate a Feast of Tropical Food and Produce, a Feast of Nature, and a Feast of Art and Culture. The Feast of the Senses will appeal to people who enjoy great tropical foods, wine, and entertainment. Showcase events during the festival include a Wine and Cheese tasting, a Gala Dinner that showcases local produce, a Market Day that incorporates an extensive range of exotic tropical fruits, art and photographic exhibitions, entertainment and bus tours to local fruit and flower farms.

The Go Troppo multi-arts festival is fast becoming a "must do" on the creative tourism trail in North Queensland.

They offer a dozen or so separate events, from theatre to visual arts, music and film vie for your attention and welcome your involvement in learning and experiencing what the culture of the far northern topics has to offer.

Go troppo with them!

The Queensland Association for Healthy Communities Inc (QAHC) presents the Tropical Alternatives Film Festival - bringing LGBT-themed films to regional Queensland, giving the local LGBT communities and their friends the chance to see alternative cinema with stories that resonate with their own lives.

Since 2007, the annual event has been growing rapidly. QAHC coordinates the festival in partnership with the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, ensuring the best content from the Melbourne festival is presented to Queensland audiences.

Each May regional Queensland gets the chance to experience queer films and celebrate the diversity of their community. If you're visiting the area, why not come along and enjoy some great films. Visit the website for more detailed information on each region/venue and to purchase tickets.

The Tropical Writers Festival in Cairns celebrates the writers of their region. The Tropical North of Australia and the region of the Great Barrier Reef has long had the reputation of attracting people who are creative and free thinking. The Tropical Writers Festival will bring together regional writers, readers and visiting authors in two free public arenas to meet, exchange ideas, stimulate the imagination and inform.

Visiting authors Sylivia Kelso and Venero Armano will present workshops covering speculative fiction and Writing the Place - in Dialogue. Workshops and the Literary Dinner will attract a fee but the public arenas are free events designed to be fun, entertaining and informative with presentations of performance poetry, music, readings and the opportunity to meet and mix with the regional writing community.

The Tropical Writers Festival is a grass roots event that showcases the regional writing community of North Queensland.