Raio De Sol Feature; Celebrate Gungahlin Festival. Photo Andrew Sikorski, April 2026.

Celebrate Gungahlin Festival 2026

“It’s such a beautiful thing to be celebrating this day.”
— Nima

Thank you to everyone who attended Celebrate Gungahlin Festival in April 2026! What a fantastic day!

Celebrate Gungahlin 2026 brought the Gungahlin Town Square to life with a fun, community-focused program on Saturday 18 April.

Across three hours of live creative programming (11am–2pm), the event featured 14 local performance slots, engaging more than 90 performers and showcasing local talent within the region. The Gungahlin Town Square was active and energetic, celebrating creativity and connection throughout the event.

A total of 33 stallholders represented local groups, services and organisations, alongside the Gungahlin Artists Market, featuring Anael Lukban, Olivia Christian and Sally Holliday. Visitors also enjoyed a hands-on comic illustration and zine making station with Lee Evatt, adding interactive creative elements to the day.

The event opened with Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony led by Ngunnawal custodian Mitch Daley. We were also thrilled to have Leanne Castley (Liberal MLA) and Andrew Braddock (Greens MLA) join us in person, celebrating their Yerrabi Electorate community.

Proudly sponsored by the Suburban Land Agency (SLA) and supported by Marketplace Gungahlin, the event welcomed over 1,000 visitors. Gungahlin Town Square was coloured with local performance, stalls and community spirit – all set against a perfect bright autumn day.

A true celebration of community, creativity and place – let’s celebrate Gungahlin.

“It was very nice to come with the kids and spend time watching wonderful people perform on stage.”
— Dawa

Grassroots community events like Celebrate Gungahlin matter because they bring people together in a very real and simple way. They create opportunities to meet up, discover what’s happening locally, and take part in something that belongs to everyone.

Celebrate Gungahlin 2026 did exactly that, activating Gungahlin Town Square into a fun, welcoming space filled with live performance, colour, creative energy, and community connection.

These kinds of local events help build a sense of connection and familiarity in a place through shared experience. They support local people, groups and organisations while also giving everyone the chance to actively participate, not just observe.

At their heart, grassroots events like Celebrate Gungahlin are about making space for community to gather and recognise itself. In doing so, over time, we strengthen the sense of place and belonging that makes a region feel alive – a place where people feel they belong.

Gungahlin already has so many layers to it more than any one event can fully capture. Celebrate Gungahlin is really just a moment in time where some of those threads come together in one place.

There are artists and storytellers like Jacqueline Rose Ahern contributing to the region’s creative voice, teams like the Prosperous Mountain Dragons training in Mitchell, and places like the Environment Centre in Harrison, Wildbark, and Mulligans Flat that connect people back to land, learning, and care for nature. These aren’t “features” of Gungahlin so much as part of its everyday – all happening at once, often just around the corner from each other.

Events like this only ever scratch the surface of what’s already here in Gungahlin.

And maybe that’s the invitation for what comes next? Keep noticing, keep connecting, and keep making space for these Gungahlin stories to be seen. We look forward to what future Celebrate Gungahlin Festivals might bring, and who it will bring together next time.

Big thank you to everyone who took part, supported, performed, exhibited, volunteered, or visited. Celebrate Gungahlin only happens because people show up, and when they do, something awesome comes to life.