Heritage festival ready to take to the skies

LESS than a month remains before the Ballarat Heritage Festival takes off for its 2025 iteration, with officials gathering at the Ballarat Airport earlier this week to publicly get the event on the runway.

City of Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh, members of the Ballarat Memorial Concert Band and aircraft enthusiasts were among those who unofficially launched the festival at the Ballarat Aviation Museum.

The site was chosen due to the 2025 festival’s flagship event, Entertainment of the Air – a celebration of aviation based at the airport.

It will include a suite of entertainment options including live music from the 1940s-inspired singing trio Pacific Belles, vintage photographs, museums and exhibitions, plus the chance to book a chartered vintage aircraft joyride. A highlight will be a visit by a Douglas DC-3 plane, built in 1945, which will ferry passengers between Ballarat and Essendon airports.

Free shuttle buses will operate throughout both weekends of the festival to transport people between the airport, Ballarat Town Hall, the Eureka Centre and Sovereign Hill.

The festival will see the return of familiar favourites such as vintage car shows and the Beard and Stache Competition, steam train rides and tours of the Old Ballarat Gaol, the Craft Lab and the Ballarat Antiques Fair.

Cr McIntosh said the festival is a great opportunity to showcase the city’s rich and complex history.

“The Ballarat Heritage Festival is a true celebration of our city’s rich history and vibrant community spirit, bringing our past to life in an extraordinary way,” she said. “The Entertainment of the Air program looks especially exciting and I encourage people to head along to the Ballarat Airport and experience something completely different in a place they might never have been in our city.”

The event comes hard on the heels of the Ballarat Begonia Festival, and preparations are already well underway for the three-week-long Ballarat Winter Festival in July.

More than 15,000 people are expected to participate in the vent, which is tipped to contribute $2 million to the local economy.

The 10-day festival will take place from Friday 16 May to Sunday 25 May and the full program is available at ballaratheritagefestival.com.au .