Garma Festival 2024

Expressions of Interest are now closed. Melbourne Forum member, Sally Baillieu, remains very happy to talk to members who might be interested in attending the Festival on their own accord, and provide some insights into this extraordinary experience.

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The 23rd annual Garma Festival will take place from Friday, 2 August to Monday, 5 August 2024.

The Garma Festival is Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering, a 4-day celebration of Yolngu life and culture held in remote northeast Arnhem Land.

Hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Garma showcases traditional miny’tji (art), manikay (song), bunggul (dance) and story-telling, and is an important meeting point for the clans and families of the region.

The Festival’s over-riding cultural mission is to provide a contemporary environment for the expression and presentation of traditional Yolngu knowledge systems and customs, and to share these practices in an authentic Yolngu setting.

Expressions of Interest

We are looking into the possibility of registering to attend the Garma Festival as a group if at least 10 people want to go. If we do this it is possible to have everyone’s tents together and even a small fire pit within the circle. This is very nice for evening get togethers after Bungle, music or the outdoor cinema and creates a little pool of respite that is welcome at times.

We expect there will be a lot of competition for tickets this year, so booking early is advised.

Ticketing is open in mid-February and we want to get an early gauge as to how many Melbourne Forum members might be interested. 

Prices range between approximately $3000-$5000 per person with meals and accommodation included. Flights are an additional cost and can be almost as expensive again. Securing flights early is advisable as prices (starting from $2000) nearly double closer to the event.

Darwin Art Fair follows directly afterwards and includes an amazing collection of work directly from Indigenous Art Centres all over Australia in the main exhibition Hall, as well as individual exhibitions all over town and a programme of peer led discussions about Indigenous cultural issues in the Botanical gardens run by Agency Projects.

To get there you can fly to Gove via Cairns which means you can get to Gove from Melbourne in 1 day. If you go via Darwin it will incur a night’s accommodation due to flight times. Darwin is a lot of fun at that time of year.

Access this link for further details.

When we have an idea of how many members are interested, we will be back in touch.