The biennial Outback Festival in Winton, attracts over 5500 visitors to our town of 900 people. A unique and highly successful celebration of all things Australian, it is a shining example of the spirit of the bush. The five day festival is renowned for its quirky events, including the Australian Dunny Derby. A smorgasbord of over 40 events showcases the finest in musical entertainment, arts, events of strength and skill, aussie humour combined with ‘fair-dinkum’ outback hospitality. The Festival is volunteer based organisation and the inaugural event was in held in 1972. The Festival is held in Winton (located between Longreach and Mt. Isa).

Objectives

The festival incorporates a diversity of events tailored to all tastes and ages from sporting events, musical entertainment, art exhibition, bush poet’s breakfasts, indigenous arts & workshops, street parties, afghan bazaar, roving entertainers and grand parade. The children are well catered for during the five days of the festival. At each festival our Committee looks for new/fresh events as the program needs to maintain the patron’s interest. We are always on the look-out for touring shows, performances and workshops to suit young and old eg: Music, cabaret, comedy, theatre, circus. One of our main objectives is to increase the volume of tourist trade to Winton especially during the Outback Festival

Audience Insights

The 2015 Outback Festival attracted over 6500 visitors and one of the special performances held was a theatre performance by the Djuki Mala Dancers from Elcho Island with over 1000 people attending in the town's Shire Hall.

Additional Information

Due to Winton’s geographical position in the Outback, there are challenges in bringing shows/entertainers to perform can be quite costly for local organisations to fund. Working collaboratively with partnerships can be beneficial and the Outback Festival Committee would be interested in keeping in touch with arTour programs for any opportunities suitable for the Outback Festival