Ballarat hopes for busiest July yet

The festival – which builds on last year’s Winterlude – was launched on Tuesday. 

Organisers will keep Sovereign Hill’s Christmas in July: Winter Wonderlights display and ice-skating rink on Armstrong Street South. 

Visit Ballarat’s Louise Lang said organisers hoped to see the city’s busiest July yet. 

“Our aim is to be the number one destination outside of the snowfields in Victoria,”

“It’s a bold aim but we think we’re setting ourselves up to do just that.”  

The festival will also feature a giant inflatable slide, igloo haven and frozen forest and Ballarat’s first ever Potato Festival, the Ballarat Brew Festival and The Red Series Wine Festival.

Ballarat Wildlife Park’s penguin enclosure will also open on July 1. 

The festival is tipped to draw 100,000 visitors to Ballarat, Ms Lang said. 

“July used to be the quietest month in Ballarat, I think it was no secret,” she said.

“July now is one of our busiest months and we’re hoping to go for around 100,000 people visiting the city as a direct result of the Winter Festival.”

Ms Lang said Winterlude had been a “fantastic start”.  

“The reason that we’ve changed from Winterlude to Winter Festival is to reflect that the whole city has something going on in winter.

“With the additional activities we’re having we’re trying to give visitors and locals something to do every single day of July.”

Last year Sovereign Hill saw July visitor numbers more than quadruple, from 20,000 five years ago to 95,000 chief executive Jeremy Johnson said.

The outdoor museum will project new images, to be revealed on June 30, and feature a further four buildings in the display.

“When we did Sovereign Hill’s Winter Wonderlights and Christmas in July we found that there was nothing else happening around the state,” Mr Johnson said.

“People are hibernated for winter and we gave them a reason to rug up and come to Ballarat and that’s the underpinning theme.”

City of Ballarat mayor Samantha McIntosh said the success of Winterlude would hold this year for Ballarat Winter Festival.

“We can see by putting on the right activity on people are absolutely loving winter in Ballarat,” Cr McIntosh said. 

“We know it’s worked exceptionally well in the past and really enhancing visitor numbers. We want to entice the numbers to our streetscape and really enjoy what Ballarat has to offer.”

The festival will launch with Sovereign Hill’s Winter Wonderlights on the night of Friday, June 30.