Mary Poppins Festival 2023
Save the date! Sunday, 2nd July 2023
Location: Portside Precinct & Queens Park
Admission: This is a free event perfect for the family
The 15th annual Mary Poppins Festival will be returning to Portside Precinct and Queen’s Park in 2023. Celebrate the art of storytelling and be transported into a world full of play and imagination. Maryborough’s heritage streetscapes and riverside parks are transformed through a storytelling program that transcends genres and presents a mix of art, culture, music and literature. The festival is guaranteed to delight both young and the young at heart, with festival favourites, chimney sweeping, nanny races and the grand parade plus street food vendors, market stalls, rides, pavement art and live entertainment.
Maryborough’s beautiful Queens Park, riverside parklands and heritage streetscapes come to life in scenes reminiscent of the Mary Poppins stories. The Mary Poppins Festival honours the author of the Mary Poppins books, Pamela Lyndon Travers, born Helen Lyndon Goff in an upstairs bedroom of the former Australian Joint Stock Bank building in Maryborough on 9 August 1899.
The bank is now an interactive museum called the Story Bank of Maryborough, which features prominently in the festival. The festival presents a program of storytelling and activities for all ages through all art forms exploring the ideas of play and imagination.
The streets come alive, with characters from the novel such as Mary Poppins, and Admiral Boom firing his cannon. Along with a hive of roaming entertainers, activities, competitions, sidewalk art and street theatre.
The Great Nanny Race, Chimney Sweep Challenge, Costume Competition, and other activities provide a chance for the community to join in with a competitive spirit. The Grand Parade – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, sees the community come together to showcase all the spectacle of the festival’s activities and colourful characters.
The festival celebrates the power of storytelling and sets the scene for visitors to be transformed into their own world of play and imagination.
For the full program click here.
