Day 3: Canberra (Floriade)

Floriade also returns back to normal after the COVID-19 lockdown! This year’s theme is entitled “The Sounds of Spring”.

Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Canberra’s Commonwealth Park on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It features extensive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures and other artistic features.

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 with a new theme every year.

During 2020, the Floriade festival was changed to a distributed event (with the bulbs spread over 100 separate sites across Canberra in an event dubbed Floriade: Reimagined) so this is the first time the festival is returning to it’s traditional home Commomwealth Park.

We came in early and had no problems finding parking at a “secret location” very close to the park that I’ve discovered and very few people seem to know about.

The festival was really enjoyable although it was smaller than previous years. The highlight was meeting a group of Vietnamese ladies all dressed identically in yellow kaftans. They took me in as a long lost sister and we took a number of group photos together.