Events in Cairns

Most are held during the dry season, between April and October.


During the rest of the year, between November and March, the weather is either too hot or too humid even for the locals.

Cairns Festival
Cairns Festival is held over a ten day period in late August / early September every year, and includes several different things from exchibitions, competitions and street entertainment to parades, fireworks, cooking shows, markets and food stalls in different places in Cairns.

Cairns Cup Carnival
Cairns Cup Carnival is Cairns's version of Melbourne Cup, and up here it is held in early August every year. 
It is at the Cannon Park Racecourse, Cairns Jockey Club in the southern end of the town, and the two day weekend has Ladies' Day on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Cairns Multicultural Festival
Properly called Cairns CARMA or Tropical Wave Festival, this event is held in late September in Fogarty Park and is a dance festival with performances by the different ethnic groups in Cairns, including many different European, Asian and Oceanian countries.

Cairns Show
Cairns Show is held on Cairns Showgrounds in mid July, in the middle of our Dry Season, and like any other similar event it has its rides, its agricultural, horticultural, and other displays and competitions, including home brew wine, and up here also sugar cane.

 

Cairns Home Show
Cairns Home Show and Caravan and Camping Expo is held over a three day weekend in late May or early June every year. It is mostly about home as well as caravan and camping exhibitions, but there are also a few shows including barramundi fishing.

       

Yorkeys Knob Festival
Yorkeys Knob Festival is a one day festival that is held on a Saturday in late May or early June every year. 
There is a fairly busy programme with stage shows including crowning of the King and the Queen of the Knob and other fun.

Cairns Festival

So what's happening at Cairns Festival?


Well a fair bit as the festival is about two weeks long.

It's in late August to early September, and I like that in most years they put on something to celebrate my birthday - the fifth of September :-)

Well all in all it's a few weeks of different events happening here and there, most in the city and on the Esplanade.

There is live music, jazz, concerts, even choirs and pipe organs...
   

... photographic exhibitions, poster competitions and street art, ...
   

Acrobats, circus and family events, ...
   

Film, dance, cabaret and theatre, ...
   

.. speech, stories, poetry and comedy.
   

And there is the usual - fireworks, carnivals and street parade, ..
   

Longest lunch on the beach, cooking competitions and demonstrations, ...
   

... food and wine festivals, markets and food stalls.
   

It is a good time in Cairns with things happening every day so join in and enjoy Cairns festival if you are around :-)

Cairns Show

Cairns show is held yearly in mid July.

It's held over a three day period at Cairns Showgrounds in Parramatta Park.

It's the same thing as Sydney's Easter Show and Brisbane's Ekka, just a smaller version of them.

The main things are livestock displays and amusement rides, so it is mostly interesting for children.

If you have kids on your Cape York trip and a few spare days in Cairns in mid July, there is the opportunity to go to the show.

There are plenty of opportunities to win prizes, ...
   

..  there are plenty of food stalls, ...
   

.. all sorts of displays, ...
   

.. kids activities, ...
   

... and amusement rides.
   

There is stage entertainment ...
   

.. such as live music and indigenous dancing, ...
   

There is the Heritage Walk with historical displays, ...
 

There are even piglet races.
   

Animals is one of the most popular part of this show,
   

.. and all the kids love to pat the goats, ...
   

.. and feed alpacas and baby cows.
   

There are also wine making competitions and local industry displays.
   

There are bars so you can have a drink, ...
   

.. and there is an extensive program with different events happening every half an hour during the three day Cairns show.
   

Every night, there is a performance by Tjapukai dancers, and in the end of every day there are fireworks.

Cairns Home Show

Cairns Home Show and Caravan and Camping Expo is getting bigger.

Of course, it is still smaller than similar expos in Sydney and Melbourne, even Brisbane, but it's getting bigger by year.

It's a very popular family event and a great place to get products and ideas for home improvement (inside and out) as well as your outdoor adventure life - camping, boating and fishing.

You can buy stuff, you can win prizes, and you can watch cooking and fishing shows.

The event is held yearly, over a three day weekend in late May / early June at Cairns Showgrounds.
   

First, and mostly inside the exhibition building, there are the products and services for home improvement, building and renovating: furnishings, patios, sheds, barbeques, lighting, home ware, floor coverings, kitchens, exercise machines, finance, property investment and sustainable living.
   

Then, and mostly outdoors, are the outdoor adventure gear: four wheel drives, caravans and camper trailers, camping gear and accessories. It's good stuff if you are into caravans (I am not into caravanning nearly as much as roof-top-tent four wheel drives, but I love watching the insides of the new vans).
   

Then there are the boating and fishing. Fishing boats, ski boats, trailers, accessories, motors, fish founders .. also kayaks, and of course, fishing gear.
   

There is also free entertainment and prizes to win at Cairns Home Show - scooters, home appliances, fishing gear. And there are fishing talks, casting and lure demonstrations, as well as cooking shows.
   

And of course there are food stalls and outlets at the Cairns Home Show so you won't go hungry.

Yorkeys Knob Festival

Yorkeys Knob Festival is properly called Festival of the Knob.

It is held in late May or early June every year, and it is a local event that indeed shows the big spirit of this small community.

It is more than just your usual parade and market stalls.

For the little community they have a well organised party, with different activities almost every hour on the program, and some very enthusiastic festival committee people.


I only got there in the arvo this year and by then obviously most of the things were done on this year's Yorkeys Knob Festival...
   

But I did get the program, and it is impressive for a little community. There is the official crowning of the King and the Queen of the Knob, the presentation of the Yorkey Award to an outstanding local business, the 'Arrival of Yorkey'.. There are guest artists such as music bands and dance clubs, and school choirs and music at the Yorkeys Knob Festival.
   

There are also kids' activities, ...
   

... market stalls, ...
   

... and of course, food outlets.
   

Kids had lots of fun, and all the locals were right into it. Yorkey's Knob is more than the boat club - it is a tight knit little community.
   

P.S. Update .. Apparently I won a competition :-)

There was that dengue fever stand, and they had mosquitoes in a small cage, and the competition question was, how many??

Quite many of them and constantly flying around so not easy to estimate.. so I wrote 170 mozzies and never thought about it again, until, a few days later, my phone rang.. Apparently I was the winner :-)

AFL Cairns

On 13. July 2013 we had another great game of AFL Cairns.

Townsville may be bigger on rugby with their Cowboys, but AFL is bigger in Cairns.

And we love it!!!

Since three years ago we now have AFL games in Cairns, and I really hope they don't stop it.

It may look like a country event compared to Melbourne's, but at least we can now watch AFL here.

The event is held at the Cazaly's Stadium in Westcourt, southern Cairns.
   

It is the largest oval stadium in Cairns and (still only) holds up to something like 13,000 people. It is owned by the Cairns Australian Football League, and is at the AFL Cairns club.

Apart from AFL, the stadium is also used by Queensland Rugby League and Queensland Cricket Association.
   

Although the history of AFL in south eastern Queensland started as early as in the late 1800s, in north Queensland it is fairly short.

Some short lived teams existed in the early 1900s in Atherton Tablelands and on Thursday Island, but it wasn't before 1955 and 1957 as the Townsville and Cairns Australian Football League were formed.

Today, the Townsville league is an amateur league, while the AFL Cairns is semi professional, and considered as the strongest Australian rules football league in regional Queensland.
   

Cazaly's hosted AFL pre-season matches in the years 2000-2007, and since 2008 the stadium has been redeveloped and the league has grown quickly.

In 2010, Richmond Tigers signed a contract to play one match per year against Gold Coast Suns at Cazaly's Stadium, in the three following years.

In all the three years the tickets sold out with 10,382, 10,961 and 11,197 people in the audience (still small numbers, I know, Victorians - but they are big for us :-).
   

In 2011 and 2012 the Suns won, but in 2013 it was Richmond's turn and it was a great game!

Richmond apparently will not be back, but the Suns will likely, and hopefully the games continue.

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