Bendigo Bloom returns for Spring 2024

Edited by Travel Weekly

The City of Greater Bendigo’s annual program of spring events, Bendigo Bloom, returns to the thriving Victorian city from September to November 2024.

Visitors can enjoy over 60 amazing experiences across the Bendigo and Heathcote regions, ensuring spring 2024 is action-packed and one to remember. The newly crowned Victorian Top Tourism for 2024 showcases a three-month long program that celebrates the cultural and heritage offerings, mixed in with amazing food and beverage events.

Bendigo Bloom sign.

Included in the 2024 lineup will be the return of the famous Bendigo Annual Tulip Display (14 September to 6 October), returning for its 21st year. The City of Greater Bendigo’s Park and Natural Reserves team puts on their great annual Tulip display along historic Pall Mall and Conservatory Gardens.

The display features over 43,000 tulips in an assortment of colours, sizes, and blooming times. It also includes the Bloom After Dark experience, running concurrently in the evenings from (20 September to 6 October) where guests can follow the free after dark trail (6pm to 10pm) to see the beautiful tulip beds illuminated.

Bloom After Dark experience.

Highlights of the 2024 Bendigo Bloom

Vegecarian (5 October 2024) – Held annually at The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, the largest Buddhist temple in the Western World. The free, family-friendly event is all about loving food, animals, and life with special gusts including Costa (ABC’s Gardening Australia host) and Diana Chan (MasterChef winner 2017) which features a jam-packed program with cooking demonstrations, wellness activities, cultural food and performances, animal blessings, and more.

Bendigo Wine Week (11 to 20 October) – An action-packed week filled with wine, food and fun across dinners, lunches, new release launches, tastings, and finishing with the Heritage and Hidden Spaces Walk, which includes nine heritage spaces and unusual spaces to explore in the heart of Bendigo’s CBD.

Heathcote Wine and Food Festival (5 to 6 October) – The weekend festival gives guests the chance to be among the first to sample new release wines from the Heathcote region and learn more about wines that have recently achieved success in international and national awards.

Bendigo Bloom festival.

Malamiya Mang Creative Arts Festival (1 to 3 November) – Presented by DJAARA, this first of its kind festival in Australia features a diverse array of First Nations-themed events, including a Djandak Wii (Fire) theme arts exhibition, a colourful fashion show, and a vibrant market showcasing the work of Djaara artists, including handcrafted jewellery, artwork and unique cultural artefacts, among other activities.

Bendigo Art Gallery Rob McHaffie: We Are Family (10 August 2024 to 27 January 2025) – This major Bendigo Art Gallery exhibition surveys the recent work of central Victorian artist Rob McHaffie. The ambitious exhibition brings together recent and new painting, collage, works on paper, and ceramic sculpture in a vibrant showcase of McHaffie’s buoyant and broad-ranging creative vision.

Tulip Garden at Bendigo's Annual Tulip Display.

The Tulip Garden in Bendigo.

Spring Bloom 2024 experiences and markets

Spring 2024 brings amazing experiences to Bendigo and Heathcote such as the famous Cornella Canola Walk (6 August to 4 October) where visitors can take in the trail of hundreds of acres of vibrant coloured canola fields.

Sonic Bloom (1 September to 30 November) – Rosalind Park’s historic Conservatory comes to life with a transformative sound experience designed by Artistic Producer Aimee Chapman. Sonic Bloom invites guests to step away from the everyday bombardment of screens and visual stimuli and reconnect with Bendigo’s extraordinary parks and gardens through immersive soundscapes, audio stories, and live music.

Village of Gnomes (14 September to 19 October) – Guests can enjoy finding the local Gnomes (made by Col Iron) in the jewel of Eaglehawk, the Canterbury Gardens precinct. Highlights include the iconic ornamental water fountain, meticulously planted ornamental garden beds which look fantastic during Spring, the Mulga Bill inspired Playspace for families, and Lake Neangar and Lake Tom Thumb which provides great walking trails to explore.

Bloomin’ Good Market (29 September to 27 October) – New to Bendigo Bloom and located near the tulip displays along Pall Mall is a pop-up market that celebrates Spring and Bendigo’s UNESCO City and Region of Gastronomy. Guests can partake in macarons, honey, jams, brittle, wine, spirits, fresh flowers, coffee, cakes, donuts, pastries, and bread. Food trucks will also cover Turkish, Indian and vegan/vegetarian options.

A gate decorated as part of the Bendigo annual tulip display.

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Bendigo Bloom 2024