[category]
[title]
Get ready, green thumbs! Australia’s floral capital is set to out-bloom itself in 2026 with the biggest Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers to date. For its 77th milestone, the country's longest-running flower festival is expected to welcome half a million visitors from around the globe to the Garden City. Over three spectacular spring weekends, more than 80 events will take root, headlined by the return of the iconic Grand Central Floral Parade and an expanded lineup of signature foodie experiences.
While the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is still months away, the council has already sown the seeds for more than 40 million petals set to splash colour across the city’s major parks like confetti. As always, this year’s major displays are in the Queens Park Botanic Gardens and Laurel Bank Park – both open daily and free to explore. But wandering pretty much anywhere around the city will take you past a photogenic curation of blooms.
The official carnival runs across four weekends – from Friday, September 18 to Monday, October 5 – but the main shebang happens on Saturday, September 19. That’s when more than 30 floral floats will wind their way from Herries and Hume Streets, along Margaret Street and into Queens Park for the beloved Grand Central Floral Parade. With the 2026 festival theme set as ‘Spring Adventures’, both parade entrants and spectators are encouraged to go all out with colourful, imaginative floral designs.
This year’s program is going hard on food experiences, headlined by FEASTival (September 26 to 27), a massive weekend featuring live demos from celebrated chefs Nornie Bero, Simon Toohey and Dominique Rizzo, alongside artisan markets, pop-up kitchens and boutique bars. Other festival staples also returning in 2026 include the Paw Parade on October 4, Weekend Table regional dining series from October 2 to 5, and #trEATS food trail of 50-plus floral-inspired dishes.
Toowoomba is just a scenic two-hour drive from Brisbane, making for the perfect weekend road trip. You can find out more about the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers here.