Bathurst Winter Festival

Recently I visited my family in Bathurst.

The area around Bathurst was originally the home of the Wiradjuri peoples. 

Bathurst is now the oldest inland settlement in Australia. Last year the city celebrated 200 years of white settlement with a big festival and street party.

It was so successful they've decided to make it an annual event to coincide with the two weeks of the winter school holidays.

Bathurst has had a number of very cold, snowy days and nights this year, but it's never usually cold enough for the snow to last for very long (it usually melts by lunchtime each day). 

So even though their new Winter Festival features lots of snow related activities, there was very little real snow in sight (although the freezing cold wind was blowing in from somewhere snowy close by!)

Bathurst has done a lovely job of celebrating the cold with markets, food and wine festivals, an ice skating rink, ferris wheel and Vivid-like lights. 

I'm sure this is a festival that will continue to grown and evolve.

Bathurst Court House looked beautiful with it's Winter Lights.

My parents enjoying the light and snow display.

Apparently there is a new ice hockey comp happening in Sydney this year.

Several of the teams travelled to Bathurst for the Winter Festival to play some exhibition games.

 The line for the Ferris wheel was too long at night, so Mum & I returned the next day.

It would have been lovely to see the town all lit up at night, but the daylight ride gave us a fabulous panorama view of the surrounding areas.

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot.