Benalla Festival returns for 2022

Published on 13 April 2022

Benalla Rural City Council and the Benalla Festival Advisory Committee have announced that the Benalla Festival is planned to proceed for 29 October – 6 November 2022.

A celebration of Benalla Rural City’s lifestyle, its community, country living and community spirit, the Benalla Festival is a community collaboration to celebrate and embrace all that is great about our region through music, dance, art and much more.

The Festival, in different formats, has been running for more than 50 years and is a major event on the Benalla Rural City community calendar.

While COVID restrictions saw the Festival cancelled for 2020 and 2021, the Council confirms its intention to go ahead with the Festival in 2022 with the central theme, Our Community, Our Future.

Cr Don Firth, Chair of the Benalla Festival Advisory Committee, said the Benalla Festival provided a chance for the community to celebrate and connect after a challenging two years.

“The Festival allows us to celebrate everything that it means to be a part of our community,” Cr Firth said.

“This is our chance to reimagine, reconnect and celebrate,” Cr Don Firth said.

Cr Firth said some elements of the Festival would be changed to accommodate COVIDSafe event requirements.

“There have been a lot of hoops and hurdles due to COVID-19, and we have made some slight adjustments to the Benalla Festival 2022 in accordance with the Victorian Government COVID safe guidelines and to make sure we are doing our part to be COVIDSafe,” Cr Firth said.

“While this means our events may be at a smaller scale or more spread out, we are committed to bringing events that encourage participation and show creativity for celebrating within these guidelines,” he said.

“We want everyone to be able to enjoy the Benalla Festival 2022 while staying safe at all of our events.”

The Festival program will highlight our rural communities with events across our townships during the Festival's first weekend from Saturday 29 to Sunday 30 October. The second weekend will feature events in Benalla from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 November.

The Benalla Festival Advisory Committee is currently seeking expressions of interest from interested individuals, groups and organisations to run an event or activity as part of the

Benalla Festival Program. To apply and for more information visit benallafestival.com.au