The Bendigo Easter Festival is a wonderful excuse to get away over Easter. Bendigo is approximately 2 hrs drive from Melbourne or 150km so is a destination that will appeal this Easter.
Image from event website.
The Festival is held over the 4 day Easter long weekend, with this falling from Friday 19 April till Monday 21 April 2014. There are many activities planned for the weekend so you will need to get in quick and book some accommodation for your stay.
Bendigo Easter Parade 2013, author image
The Festival features a parade on Easter Sunday with an appearance by Sun Loong, a Chinese dragon over 100m long. The parade is a chance to see Bendigo's local community get together and showcase the various schools, groups and businesses which operate in the local area.
The program for the weekend includes a free music event, Freeza, on
Thursday 17 April from 5pm till 9pm and is suitable for all ages and is a drug, alcohol and smoke free event to be held in Rosalind Park.
Friday 18 April features the Hazeldene Family Day in Rosalind Park from 9am till 5pm. There will be an Easter egg hunt, petting zoo, rides, music, roving entertainment and vintage and classic cars on display. There is also a playground to explore as well.
Other events for Friday include the Rotary Art, Craft and Produce market, Skatebeat, a mobile skate park where you can learn to ride skateboards. Skatebeat will be in Park Road, Bendigo from 10am till 5pm.
There's fireworks at 8pm at the Tom Flood Sports Complex in Park Road followed by a twilight family movie at 8.30pm.
Saturday 19th come along to the Kidszone in Rosalind Park from 10am till 5pm. There will be a live Rock and Blues Festival between 2pm and 10pm at Bull Street. A torchlight procession and more fireworks will commence at 8pm.
Easter Sunday (20th April) will see the continuation of activities such as Kidszone, Skatebeat and the Rock and Blues Festival (2pm-9pm) with the Easter Parade from 1pm. Get a spot lining the streets to see the colourful parade and Sun Loong, the world's longest imperial dragon.
A number of activities run each day of the Easter Festival including three community stages (10am-3pm Friday to Sunday) in Rosalind Park, Lansell Gardens and Park Road featuring local artists. The Bendigo Chinese Association is featuring a Chinese Historical Walk and dragon puppet workshops (Good Friday at 10am, 1pm and 3pm), the Chinese Spring Festival (Saturday 11am-12pm) and the Awakening of the Dragon (Saturday 2pm-3.30pm).
Other highlights of the festival include the Y Service Easter Book Fair, the Rotary Easter Art Show, the Bendigo Easter Antique Fair and the Rotary Club of Kangaroo Flat hole in one competition.
A Lego fan expo will also be held at The Capital in View Street, Bendigo on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is a ticketed event with tickets and opening time details available
here.
For further information about the 2014 Bendigo Easter Festival visit the
website or download a flyer detailing the program from
here. Additional activities over the Easter weekend can also be found at the Golden Dragon Museum
Website.
Accommodation information can be found be visiting
Bendigo Tourism.
Come along this Easter and have a weekend away at the Easter Festival.
