Armidale Light Festival
What’s on inArmidale?

Armidale Events

Click to view the Summer 2024/25 events calendar! (PDF 1MB), or view the list below.

No matter what time of year you visit, chances are there will be an event or festival in or around Armidale.

Events not to be missed include the Autumn Festival, Big Chill Festival, The Bach Festival, The New England Garden Festival, Armidale International Film Festival and Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival. Other great annual events include New England Sings, The Armidale Cup, Guyra Trout Festival, Armidale Youth Orchestra Garden Party, Vintage Truck, Machinery and Heavy Horse Show and the NEGS Equestrian events. The calendar is full with premier sport events including the TAS Rugby Carnivals, Tour de Rocks and the 12hr Mountain Bike Enduro.

Have an event to add to the calendar?

New England Garden Festival – Autumn Garden Trail – Tenterfield

Various ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

This inaugural Autumn Garden Trail, organised by the New England Garden Festival, will travel across the beautiful New England region in six days, opening approximately 18 cold climate gardens for the public. Each town will open their three gardens. Visitors are encouraged to stay in each town the night before to make most use of the gardens' opening hours. When the gardens close, visitors are encouraged to visit the locally recommended 'hot spots' from each town before moving on to […]

$5

Armidale Birdwatchers

Gwydir Park Road TSR Gwydir Park Road, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Regent Honeyeater survey week. 7.55am for 8.00am departure from Visitor Information Centre, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea and lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes, bring a picnic chair as many bush spots do not have facilities. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. Newcomers are always welcome, but please notify our leader, Dr Stephen Debus (sdebus@une.edu.au) preferably a day or two prior […]

Free

ArtsNational Lecture: “About Face:…”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

About Face: How to Read Portraits - Alice Foster (Oxford University, UK) Portraits are complex to produce and quite distinct from other categories in art in the way they are made, the nature of what they represent and how they work in terms of display.  Oxford (UK) university lecturer and historian Alice Foster will discuss portraits from the symbolic to images where concern with identity opens the areas of character, personality, mood, status, costume, occupation, gender and age.

$25

Armidale Eisteddfod 2025

New England Conservatorium of Music Armidale Teachers' College, Cnr Mossman and Faulkner Streets, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Armidale’s Eisteddfod is an important cultural event in the New England calendar that continues a wonderful cultural tradition established in Wales over 900 years ago. Welsh Eisteddfods were festivals celebrating the performance of literature and music, and this concept holds true to this day. Down the centuries, Eisteddfods have evolved to reflect changing societies but they remain an enduring part of Australia’s cultural heritage as important training grounds for emerging entertainers – our musicians, dancers and actors.

Free

Armidale Birdwatchers

Oaky River TSR Kempsey Road (approximately 48.5km south east), ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

7.55am for departure at 8.00am from the Visitor Information Centre carpark, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea and lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. For more information and register to join group, phone Shirley on 0458 260 937 or email shrlycook@gmail.com. Newcomers are always welcome, but please notify our leader, Dr Stephen Debus (sdebus@une.edu.au) preferably a […]

Free

ArtsNational Lecture: “Decorating Domestic Spaces…”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Decorating Domestic Spaces in Medieval Europe - Kathleen Olive (Italy) Well-to-do merchants, bankers and even artisans signalled their wealth and sophistication through conspicuous consumption, much of it destined for the interior decoration of their comfortable domestic spaces. Historian, tour guide and Italian expert Kathleen Olive will explore the decorative style of the 14th and 15th centuries in Italy and France.    

$25

Musica Viva Concert – Nicki Parrott

New England Conservatorium of Music Armidale Teachers' College, Cnr Mossman and Faulkner Streets, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Nicki Parrott and Her Northern Rivers Band - Feelin' Groovy After 30 years of headlining New York, Japan and Europe to sold-out performances at most of the world’s top jazz venues and festivals, international recording and touring artist, Nicki Parrott, celebrates her return home to “slow down and chill out” with her exceptional  Northern Rivers Band. Feelin’ Groovy is a musical tribute to the “Swinging Sixties” presented by a world-class ensemble. Fun for all ages! Artists: Nicki Parrott (coustic bass, electric bass and vocal); Steve Russell […]

$26.13 – $56.88

Armidale Birdwatchers

Armidale Pine Forest Rockvale Road (on right, approx. 5 km north from Armidale), ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

7.55am for 8.00am departure from Visitor Information Centre, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea and lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes, bring a picnic chair as many bush spots do not have facilities. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. For more information and register to join group, phone Shirley on 0458 260 937 or email shrlycook@gmail.com. Newcomers are always welcome, but please […]

Free

ArtsNational Lecture: “A Carpet Ride to Khiva:…”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

A Carpet Ride to Khiva: A Personal Story of Reviving Ancient Silk Carpet Designs - Chris Asian (Cambridge, UK) The work of Cambridge-based author, lecturer and travel guide Chris Aslan took him to the bazaars of Afghanistan and to the great libraries and museums of Europe to track down 15th century manuscripts to revive carpet designs from their illuminations. He tells his own story of working with UNESCO to establish a silk carpet workshop in the desert oasis of Khiva, […]

$25

Armidale Birdwatchers

Gwydir Park Road TSR Gwydir Park Road, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Regent Honeyeater survey week. 7.55am for 8.00am departure from Visitor Information Centre, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea and lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes, bring a picnic chair as many bush spots do not have facilities. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. Newcomers are always welcome, but please notify our leader, Dr Stephen Debus (sdebus@une.edu.au) preferably a day or two prior […]

Free

ArtsNational Lecture: “Faber and Faber -…”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Faber and Faber - 90 Years of Excellence in Cover Design - Tony Faber (UK) Faber and Faber has been one of London’s most important literary publishing houses since 1925 and Toby Faber, grandson of the founder will trace the firm’s history through its illustrations, covers and designs. The firm’s insistence on good design has seen some of Britain’s most celebrated artists as cover illustrators.    

$25

ArtsNational Lecture: “Painting the Modern Garden -…”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Painting the Modern Garden - From Monet to Matisse - Lydia Bauman (UK) The modern garden, transformed by 19th century innovations such as hybridisation, glasshouses and foreign exploration, was part of a great social change to which artists responded from the 1860s onwards.   United Kingdom art historian and artist Lydia Bauman will trace the garden as a modern phenomenon and the development of new art movements adopting it as their subject.

$25

Armidale Birdwatchers

Metcalfe Garden, Dumaresq Dam Road, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

7.55am for departure at 8.00am from the Visitor Information Centre carpark, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea/lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes. Some may wish to go to the Reserve at the Dam for a longer birding morning. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. For more information and register to join group, phone Shirley on 0458 260 937 or email shrlycook@gmail.com. Newcomers […]

Free

Musica Viva Concert – Arcadia Winds

Armidale Town Hall 127 Rusden Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

Arcadia Winds is the trailblazer of Australian wind music. Don’t miss this extraordinary ensemble and see what the critics are raving about! Artists: Kiran Phatak (flute); Rachel Bullen (oboe); Lloyd Van’t Hoff (clarinet); Rachel Shaw (horn); Matthew Kneale (bassoon). Program: Pēteris Vasks, Music for Fleeting Birds; Anne Cawrse, Honeybee; Holly Harrison, Phasmid Funk; Miguel del Aguila, Wind Quintet No. 2; Valerie Coleman, Red Clay Mississippi Delta.  

$26.13 – $56.88

Armidale Birdwatchers

South Falconer TSR Falconer Road, off New England Highway (on right - not as far as Little Llangothlin Lagoon), GUYRA, New South Wales, Australia

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BEGINS 2.00am - put clocks FORWARD one hour. 7.55am for departure at 8.00am from the Visitor Information Centre carpark, 82 Marsh Street. Bring food (morning tea and lunch), water, binoculars, sunscreen and hat, and wear stout shoes. The scheduled visit may be changed or cancelled if conditions on the day are likely to affect the excursion. For more information and register to join group, phone Shirley on 0458 260 937 or email shrlycook@gmail.com. Newcomers are always welcome, but […]

Free

Musica Viva Concert – Trio Isimsiz

Armidale Town Hall 127 Rusden Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

In its first Australian tour and only regional performance, Trio Isimsiz from the UK performs two giants of the piano trio repertoire by Schubert and Brahms, alongside an exciting new voice, the ‘ear-beguiling and strikingly inventive’ Francisco Coll. Artists: Pablo Hernan Benedi (violin); Edvard Pogossian (cello); Erdem Misirlioglu (piano). Program: Brahams Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor; Schubert Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major; Francisco Coll Piano Trio (2020).

$26.13 – $56.88

ArtsNational Lecture: “The Real Pirates of the Caribbean”

Michael Hoskins Creative Arts Centre The Armidale School, 87 Douglas Street, ARMIDALE, NSW, Australia

The Real Pirates of the Caribbean - Georgina Bexon (UK) For centuries pirates roamed the oceans creating havoc and violence for unsuspecting sailors reaching its zenith in the early eighteenth century when notorious marine outlaws like Captain Kidd and Bluebeard led crews of murderous pirates intent on plundering the high seas. Join UK historian Georgina Bexon to find out the evidence that supports the tales of terror.

$25