A much-loved festival celebrating winter is returning.
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The Ballarat Winter Festival will include a myriad of winter-themed events, activities and entertainment.
The highlights include Sovereign Hill's Winter Wonderlights, Kryal Castle's Knights of Fire event, Ballarat Wildlife Park's newest tiger and penguins, ice skating rink and The Design Exchange Market.
A live music festival will be held in venues and unused spaces and there will be special food and drink experiences, performances, workshops and demonstrations.
City of Ballarat mayor Des Hudson said the festival would build on the successes of the city's two recent festivals.
"The winter festival is always a really vibrant time for Ballarat. We play off the reputation of Ballarat as potentially being cold but let's celebrate it with people putting on a warm beanie, putting on some warm clothes but coming out and being part of the many events that are across Ballarat," Cr Hudson said.
"Off the back of two other really significant festivals, the begonia festival and heritage festival, I think what we are seeing is people that are travelling, people are wanting to engage in family-friendly activities."
Cr Hudson said the festival was an opportunity for visitors to stay in Ballarat, with it running during Victoria's school holidays and the first week of South Australia's school holidays.
The winter festival contributed about $1.5 million to the Ballarat economy in 2022.
"It gives us a really good opportunity to showcase Ballarat and have a really good economic boost for our tourism industry with the showcase of events that are on."
Kryal Castle chief executive officer Bart Hamilton said the attraction would give visitors a medieval experience, but a warm version.
He said it was great Ballarat's main three attractions combined for the winter festival.
"It's a good chance for locals and people from outside to experience everything we've got," Mr Hamilton said.
Ballarat Wildlife Park marketing manager Darren Collinson the park's highlight during the winter festival was seeing the park's newest tiger, Akasha who arrived two weeks ago.
He said two penguins, Bunny and Hop, are settling in after arriving about four weeks ago from Phillip Island.
The attraction gives visitors a different point of view of the animals during the winter months because it is not as busy. Hot food and log fires will warm visitors.
The Ballarat Winter Festival will be held from Saturday, June 24 to Sunday, July 16. For more information, go to https://www.visitballarat.com.au/ballarat-winter-festival/
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