One of the region’s most popular events, the New England Garden Festival is back and bigger than ever, with a special guest coming this year that gardeners will love.
After a bumper first year in 2023, the festival has grown to new and more beautiful heights and tickets are on sale now!
This year’s festival will start on 31 October and run through until 6 November, meandering its way through the region with the festival weekend at Armidale forming the centrepiece of proceedings.
Lou Forsythe and the New England Garden Festival committee are now busy putting the final finishing touches on the event.
“We are a group of community volunteers with a love of gardening and desire to do something positive for our town, our community and our region,” said Mrs Forsythe.
“We aim to bring together gardeners, experts and the community for fun and educational activities.”
In a first for this year, the festival will also incorporate the New England Garden Trail.
“The inaugural New England Garden Trail, organised by the New England Garden Festival team, will travel across 6 country towns in the beautiful New England region in 7 days, opening approx. 18+ cold climate gardens to visitors,” said Mrs Forsythe.
The official NE Garden Trail schedule has now opened on the New England Garden Festival website, with tickets also on sale now. Opening hours for gardens in each town will be from 9am – 2pm.
The itinerary is as follows:
- 31 October Walcha
- 1 November Uralla
- 2-3 November Armidale and New England Garden Festival at the Armidale Racecourse
- 4 November Guyra
- 5 November Glen Innes
- 6 November Tenterfield
The committee has carefully curated 3 gardens per town, as well as a list of tourist opportunities to take advantage of while visiting each township. The details of which gardens will be open in each location can be found on the New England Garden Festival’s website with addresses being added 2 weeks prior to the Festival.
“In making the event a Trail we’ve deliberately kept the gardens to just three per town for two reasons – firstly because we know the gardener’s attending all want to see as much as possible and secondly, we’ve capped the garden open times from 9am – 2pm as we want to give visitors the opportunity to explore each town in the afternoon and see all it has to offer before moving onto the next town.”
“We encourage visitors to stay in each town the night before so they make the best use of the garden opening hours. This is especially important in Walcha where the gardens are widespread. To see all three Walcha gardens in the allotted time, visitors need to be at one of the distant gardens at 9am,” said Mrs Forsythe.
Each garden will attract a small entry fee, with the entirety of proceeds staying in that town, and going to the Garden owner’s chosen local charity.
In 4 towns the recipients are Can Assist, the Tenterfield garden owners have chosen their Cancer Support Group, and Walcha’s funds will be going to the Walcha Community Support group.
“The New England Garden Festival Inc. is a not-for-profit organisation. Not only are we hosting a feature event for the New England region to showcase the beautiful gardening potential plentiful in our area, but we are also supporting Can Assist by raising funds for local patients, and their families, suffering from a cancer diagnosis,” said Mrs Forsythe.
“The most important part for us is that we make sure that the money raised in each town, stays in that town.”
The Festival itself will form the highlight of the week, being held on the weekend of 2-3 November at the Armidale Racecourse.
After having over 3500 people attend last year, 2024 is shaping up to be even bigger, with a record number of stalls, workshops and presentations already on the list.
The Committee are very proud to announce that their special guest for this year will be much loved television personality Costa Georgiadis. Best known for his work presenting on ABC’s Gardening Australia, Costa is a fully qualified landscape architect with a special interest in environmental education. Costa will be at the garden festival to share his journey, insights on regenerative agriculture, and his love for gardening that resonates with all ages.
Tickets are now on sale for both the festival, and all the Open Gardens. Tickets for the associated demonstrations and workshops will follow shortly after.
With topics ranging from tool rejuvenation, and wreath decoration to seed propagation and critter habitat creation, bush foods to bonsai – there really is something for all ages, abilities and interest levels.
There are participant limits on some workshops and demonstrations so it’s best to book early to avoid disappointment, and check the timetable so you don’t book something at a time that clashes with something else.
Keep your eyes on the website and book as the tickets go live across all the activities, and set yourself up to have a a blooming good weekend!
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