This article is from Sydney WeekendNotes for Monday the 15th of June 2009

So it seems that winter is upon us. While you might prefer to stick your head under the doona in denial, the Blue Mountains Winter Magic festival might be just the thing to get you in the mood.

Winter Magic is a celebration of the winter solstice and sees Katoomba come to life. It’s the Blue Mountains biggest annual event and is now in its 16th year.

With 10 stages and over 80 performances on the Saturday alone, it is a bumper programme. To get through it all things start early. The first event of the day (Brahma Kumaris - Raja Yoga Meditation), commences at 9am.

If that’s too early for you, make sure you are up and ready for the Grand Parade (a festival highlight) which kicks off at 11.30am. In the International Year of Astronomy, Parade Co-ordinator Shane Jeffery, has brought the theme “The Stars Come Out” to life.

Other events on Saturdays programme include Tom the Poms drumming workshop, a great line up of local artists including rockabilly band Jordan and the Original Six, blues and roots artists Phil Davidson, and the Candy Stripe Circus, the oldest living mermaid and her sailor boy – for the kids of course! The full festival line up is available here.

The Winter Magic festival is a family friendly event, and is designed to bring all members of the community together. To help make this happen all official festival events are free.

Getting to and from the festival is easy. Katoomba is a pleasant 1.5 hour drive from Sydney.

For those looking for a different way to travel to the event, the Heritage Express steam train will ensure you arrive and depart in style.

The train will depart from Central Station at 8.48am and stop at Strathfield, Westmead and Penrith. The train will depart Katoomba at 3.45pm for the return journey. For more information and to purchase tickets click here.

While Saturday June 20 is the big day, the celebrations will be running in the Blue Mountains for the month of June. One of the highlights of the satellite programme is the installation of an outdoor ice skating rink. The rink will be installed on the Friday after the Winter Magic festival and will be accessible for two months. A programme of the festival's satellite events is available here.