Darwin Festival in 3 days Music, culture, arts, food & fun

Darwin Festival gives our balmy August nights a new meaning when it kicks off early in the month with its exuberance of hyperlocal and utterly Aussie performers.

Take advantage of the tropical weather and party against the backdrop of our incredible indigo and purple sunsets while you soak up all the food, drink, fun, and multicultural flavour at the epicentre of it all at Festival Park.

Keep your breakfast light because one of the best ways to get your bearings in Darwin is with a lunchtime Darwin Gourmet Tour. Also available for dinner, the tour lasts roughly 3½ hours and takes in 3 of the city’s most awarded restaurants.

On the tour you’ll be introduced to the best chefs as they present a degustation of (at least) 12 tasting plates of local produce and traditional Aboriginal bush foods.

The tour is a slow-paced and short walk around Darwin that caters for all dietary requirements and takes in some of the city’s cultural and historic landmarks along the way.

After lunch why not download the free Darwin Street Art app and take your own tour of the streetscape augmented with 3D technology that makes art jump off the walls and come to life before finding a big old tree to lay the afternoon away in Bicentennial Park.

Festival Park is located towards in the direction of the Waterfront on Smith Street and is convenient to a lot of Darwin’s accommodation. It acts as the hub for Darwin Festival with easy spoke-like access to the surrounding, participating venues. Festoon lights twinkle in the evening sky here, where your hunger and thirst will be rekindled by the smell, sight, and sounds of Darwin’s most celebrated local foodies, distilleries, and breweries.

If you have a spare morning it’s worth heading to the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens and Eva’s Botanic Gardens Café for breakfast. Founded in in 1886, with plantings for ornamental and scientific purposes the gardens make a tranquil backdrop and have obviously inspired a well-stacked vegetarian breakfast board (among other options) at Eva’s Café.

After breakfast make your way to the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory (MAGNT), a 20-minute walk-in-the (literal) park away and take in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards exhibition.

Telstra NATSIAA is one of Australia's most prestigious art awards. MAGNT is the Territory’s preeminent cultural institution and delicately melds a renowned cultural and scientific collection that will absorb you for hours if you let it.

You’ve been looking at it ever since you arrived, now get out on the water and sail the Darwin Harbour at sunset. Sailing tours stretch to suit your budget and can last a few hours or become multi-day trips. Between all the incredible art and action on the land for Darwin Festival, many people relish the opportunity to get into nature and find tranquility out on the ocean either before or after a gig.

Rise early and drive 120km south-east of Darwin along sealed roads and plunge your delicate self into the waterholes at Litchfield National Park.

Feel yourself unwind as you float in lush waterholes and let your mind drift to the sound of misty waterfalls cascading over the Northern Territory’s famous, bush landscape. Litchfield National Park will connect you to a sense of deep time and verdant bushland; a powerful and humbling experience just 60 minutes from Darwin.

The best way to bookend your Darwin Festival experience is with a visit to Mindil Beach Sunset Market.

These markets are pure Darwin and feature a congregation of more than 200 vendors representing cultures ancient, modern, local, and from almost everywhere in the world. Mindil Beach Sunset Market is a place to eat and shop until you finally, and deservedly, drop.