About the Cairns Italian Festival
Celebrating Italian Food, Wine & Culture
Italy in the Tropics
Thank you for joining us at the third Cairns Italian Festival in 2024. See you in 2025! Dates will be released early 2025, watch this space.
Ciao and welcome aboard a journey celebrating and showcasing the flavours of Italian food, culture, family values, and history, whilst embracing and involving the entire local community and businesses to participate in one of the most exciting events in the Cairns Calendar.
The festival is a celebration rich in Italian history. Immerse yourself in Italian culture in a vibrant and festive atmosphere. Prepare to be transported to Italy through the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the festival, a celebration rich in Italian history, culture, food, wine, song, and dance.
Cairns’ most iconic Italian Festival has something for everyone and all ages. From the big food and wine festival day at Fogarty Park, degustation dinners celebrating Italian regions at some of the best Italian restaurants in Cairns, our glamorous Gala Ball, Mareeba Sausage and Salami Festival, the Theatre Restaurant, the annual FNQ soccer battle and more!
The Cairns Italian festival is an event that encompasses the entire North Queensland region from Cairns, Atherton, Dimbulah, Edmonton, Gordonvale, Innisfail, Mareeba, Mossman, Mutchilba, Port Douglas, Silkwood, Tully, and Yungaburra.
Set in the beautiful location of Cairns, the Cairns Italian Festival is a bucket-list destination event that is on the annual event calendar of foodies from around Australia each and every year.
Let’s eat, drink, be Italian, and celebrate Italy in the Tropics!
Eat
Drink
Be Entertained
What’s On
Thank you for joining us at the third Cairns Italian Festival in 2024. See you in 2025! Experience an array of events and world-class entertainment. The program of events will be released in 2025, watch this space.
What does the Cairns Italian Festival represent?
The Cairns Italian Festival is an event that is way overdue and encompasses the entire North Queensland region from Cairns, Atherton, Dimbulah, Edmonton, Gordonvale, Innisfail, Mareeba, Mossman, Mutchilba, Port Douglas, Silkwood, Tully, and Yungaburra. The Inaugural Cairns Italian Festival is a celebration rich in history, culture, food, wine, song, and dance that will encompass a week of festivities.
Our festival is a week of highly charged and authentic Italian entertainment celebrations, but it also pays homage honouring the Italian immigrants that left their homeland in search for a better life and future in Australia. Generations of Italians making Australia home and changing the face and future of the North Queensland Region in farming, business, and development.
We must all pay the highest RESPECT to our parents, grandparents and great grandparents migrating to Australia and dealing with extreme hardships. The physical work of clearing land for farming, cutting cane by hand, picking tobacco by hand, the language barrier, no money, no phones, no family help, and the uncertainty of their future. Their choices were, work hard, work harder, don’t complain, and keep working harder. What they did have however was strong moral values, friendships, and the ability to help each other in times of need. All the while the “Family” as the most important fabric of their life.
Meet the faces behind the Festival
Since the inception of this event, a new Italian Family was created in our Cairns Italian Festival Committee. Italians from all regions of Italy and non-Italians who share our passion are creating beautiful new memories and friendships. If you would like to volunteer at the event or join our committee, we would love to hear from you. View our volunteer opportunities or express interest in joining the commitee now. We want you to be part of our family whether you are Italian or not!