Floriade, Canberra

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A glorious and extensive display of Tulips is a highlight of Floriade

Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Canberra's Commonwealth Park featuring extensive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures and other artistic features. The festival attracts tourists from around Australia and overseas in spring from mid September to mid October each year, and is considered the most important regular event for tourism in the Australian Capital Territory. It is also called "Australia's Celebration of Spring". After some controversy regarding an entry charge, admission to Floriade has been free for a number of years.

This years theme, Carnivale - The world on show, celebrates the colour and diversity of the world with more than one million bulbs and anuals.

- Jon Stanhope MLA ACT Chief Minister

1 History
2 Location
3 Public art
4 Floriade themes
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Floriade started in 1988 as a one off celebration of Canberra's 75th birthday and Australia's bicentenary of European settlement. Due to the success and popularity of the event, it has run every year since then with each year having a new theme and is currently the largest flower festival in the Southern hemisphere with over 300,000 visitors each year.

In September 2005 ACT tourism authorities considered legal action over a trademark violation with Hunter Valley Gardens in New South Wales [1] who had renamed their annual floral festival to Floriade Hunter Valley Gardens. The term Floriade was replaced with Festival of Flowers in 2006.

[edit] Location

Floriade is located in Commonwealth Park, Canberra and this year (2006) it is running from the 16th of September to the 15th of October.

[edit] Public art

Floriade gives great expression to public art, each year commissioning works which are placed in the Floriade gardens. Some remain beyond the festival.

Floriade has also held a gnome decorating competition and display for several years, with strong participation from schools, aged people's homes, and businesses. The 2005 theme of Rock 'n Roll only accentuated the regular theme of decorating gnomes as the members of bands. Examples shown below are the Australian children's entertainers, The Wiggles, in this case renamed The Gniggles, and the crowd favourite, KISS submitted by Weetangera Primary School.