Some festivals give you music, others give you food, and some decide the correct answer is to dress up like knights on horseback and let steel settle differences. On September 5th and 6th, Newcastle Foreshore Park will host a full-blown medieval festival. The modern world will briefly vanish to make way for tourney fields, roving merchants and enough old-world spectacle to make it feel as though someone has blown a trumpet and opened the castle gates. Secure thy passage by purchasing tickets here. Or, if you can’t make it on those dates, the festival will head to Queanbeyan Showgrounds, just a 20-minute drive from Canberra, on September 26th and 27th!
5 September 2026 10:00 + more dates
26 September 2026 10:00 + more dates
Few things command attention quite like a tournament, and this Medieval Festival knows it. The Buhurt tournament, coming to the festival for the first time, delivers combat at its roughest: competitors wearing chainmail step into battle equipped with blunted steel, where the mood is all about surviving the glorious chaos.
Just when you think the excitement ends there, midday brings a loud, time-tested tradition: a cannon firing that’s loud enough to break through the sounds of cheering crowds. This firing is only for the Newcastle festival, though. The main draw of the Queanbeyan festival is the jousting tournament, unique to this city only. Fully-armoured professional horseback riders will enter the arena, adorned in chainmail, lances in hand, aiming for the kind of dramatic collisions you’d expect to see on Game of Thrones.
If you’re seeking calm from the battlefield antics, take a stroll through the Artisan Village and market, where stalls offer handcrafted goods, old-world accessories, leatherwork, forged weapons and curiosities that are perfectly suited to the medieval vibes. Socialise with fellow cosplayers as you show off your crafted outfits, while improvising titles and LARPing as though you’re in your own version of The Lord of The Rings.
For two days, these two places will feel less like modern-day cities and more like entering another century. If your weekend could use more steel, cosplay, mead, and the occasional canon blast, then consider this your summons to purchase your tickets! Revelry and glory await…
Newcastle Medieval Festival
5 September 2026 10:00 + more dates
Queanbeyan Medieval Festival
26 September 2026 10:00 + more dates
