ACT chief minister Andrew Barr wants to see Canberra’s annual spring festival, Floriade, reach half a million visitors this year.

Mr Barr made the comment at the Floriade 2025 Media Launch at Yarralumla Nursery on Thursday 20 May, where the theme ‘Science and Nature’ was announced.

Floriade will run at Commonwealth Park from Saturday 13 September to Sunday 12 October.

“Last year the event attracted 470,000 visitors who spent around $62.5 million,” Mr Barr said.

“So, it goes without saying that the success of Floriade each year is not only an important local event, it’s an opportunity for Canberrans to come out of winter hibernation to enjoy the change of season, but it’s also our single biggest tourism drawcard.”

Mr Barr said it would be a remarkable achievement to reach 500,000 visitors.

“We know event attendance is somewhat impacted by weather, so to get to that half a million, we’re going to need a pretty good run of great Canberra spring weather,” he said.

“If we get that, we’re a chance for that half a million target.”

Mr Barr said he also hoped the economic contribution would grow to $65-70m.

Commonwealth Park head gardener Tim Howard said the garden beds for this year’s festival were designed around the theme of science and flowers.

“We’ve created 12 unique garden designs. We’ve built about 8,000 square metres of gardens and planted about 970,000 flowers ready for spring this year,” Mr Howard said.

He said the planting for the festival at Commonwealth Park began in April.

“We’re about three-quarters of the way through the planting process and then everything gets to grow in the ground ready for springtime,” Mr Howard said.

CD asked Mr Howard what planning went into planting everything to ensure it grew on time.

“This year, with the number of plants we’ve used, we’ve had designs drawn up and Yarralumla (Nursery) kindly counted out all of our stock by hand. It takes about 18 months to get the projects to open day,” he said.

When further asked by CD how the weather impacted the plants, he said a cold winter activated and helped the bulbs to grow, which, when followed by a warm spring, coloured the annuals nicely.

Yarralumla Nursery senior director Matt Parker said the nursery began its preparation for Floriade in October/November with the ordering of the annuals and bulbs.

“Then beginning around March, we start receiving all the bulbs and we store them here ready for dispatch to the park in preparation for the festival,” Mr Parker said.

He said science played a huge part in what the nursery does for Floriade, including the temperature the bulbs were stored to help the embryo develop and be planted to grow.

The presenting partner for the 2025 festival, Allhomes, was also announced at the launch.

For more information on this year’s festival, visit floriadeaustralia.com

Key program highlights include:

• Great Big Bulb Dig: Take home a piece of Floriade on 13 October, the day after the festival finishes, and support local charities as the festival wraps up for the season.
• NightFest will run from 2-5 October: Four dazzling nights of after-dark entertainment, illuminated garden displays, food stalls and live performances from 6:30-10:30pm. Tickets will go on sale on 21 July.
• Windows to the World at Floriade: Running on 11 October, it is a cultural showcase with traditional dress, music, dance, global cuisine, and coffee ahead of the larger Windows to the World weekend, which runs from 18-19 October.
• Dogs’ Day Out: A crowd favourite returns on Floriade’s final day, 12 October, where visitors can enjoy the blooms with their four-legged companions.

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