The East Gippsland Winter Festival returns for its fifth year with medieval fire shows, ice sculptures and foodie collaborations.
East Gippsland Winter Festival returns this June with a month-long celebration spanning the entire region, showcasing local creativity and resilience.
Now in its fifth year, the East Gippsland Winter Festival will feature an epic program of art, culture, food, nature and wellness events across the region. From Paynesville on the Gippsland Lakes to Omeo in the High Country and out to Cape Conran in the far east, the 2025 festival promises to be five times the fun as the community showcases its creativity, recovery and resilience five years on from the devastating Black Summer bushfires.
East Gippsland Winter Festival
- When: 20 June to 20 July 2025
- Where: Multiple locations across East Gippsland
Check out our gig guide, our stage guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
The festival, which began as a response to the 2019/20 bushfires and subsequent COVID lockdowns, has grown significantly over five years. It now employs four part-time staff and works with dozens of local artists, musicians and volunteers, delivering significant economic and social benefits across the region.
To celebrate the milestone, five festival favourites are returning in 2025, including the Medieval Winter Fire Festival in Bruthen on 21 June, featuring sword fights, bonfires and fireside feasting. The Nicholson River Trestle Bridge Long Lunch on 27 June offers a unique dining experience showcasing Gippsland’s best produce, while Fire & Ice in Metung on 5 July combines live ice sculpting with a spectacular fire show.
Later in the festival, Lakes Lights will transform the Lakes Entrance Foreshore on 12 July with artist-made lantern sculptures and lighting projections, while Sailor’s Grave Brewing’s Deep in the Weeds festival closes the program on 19 July at their new Dunetown home base in Marlo.
Five new events will also debut in 2025, including an Après Ski Party at Eight Acres in Lakes Entrance, an Op Shop Ball at The Monaro Centre in Cann River, and The Great Alpine Scarecrow Competition in Swifts Creek. Food lovers can look forward to a collaboration between renowned chef Karen Martini and Sodafish in Lakes Entrance, while Bancroft Bay Distillery will host a Bottomless Cocktail Brunch in Paynesville.
The East Gippsland Winter Festival spans 28 towns across the region and last year attracted over 27,000 attendances across 167 individual events. The festival directly involves more than 280 local businesses, sole traders and organisations, alongside 190 volunteers.
For more information, head here.
