Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival History

Held free of charge every year, the Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival aims to promote an inclusive, peaceful and harmonious society for all. 

The founding goals of the festival are two-fold:

• to promote harmony, respect, peace and cultural awareness in our culturally diverse society; and
• to share joy and happiness within the community and among families.

The Buddha's Day Festival was first staged in 1995 at the site of what is now City Square, initially held to commemorate the birth of the Buddha and to introduce the traditions of Buddhist ceremony of this key religious festival to the greater public.

In 1996, the festival moved to a location on Lonsdale Street and from 1997 to 1999 was held in Box Hill.

The Buddha's Birthday Festival returned to the Melbourne CBD in 2000 at John Batman Park . During the 2000 festival, event programming expanded to include community agencies, non-stop multicultural performances and a special children's corner.

In 2001, the festival was held again at John Batman Park, again with great success – however, the Executive of BLIA VIC recognized that a more central and accessible location was required to facilitate the growing numbers of the Victorian community coming together in celebration.

During this period BLIA VIC approached Federation Square with the proposal of staging the festival in the (then) partially completed site in 2002.

In 2002, the Buddha's Birthday Festival returned to Box Hill pending completion of Federation Square.

The result?

On the 3rd-4th of May 2003, the Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival was the first community festival held at Federation Square. 

It has grown alongside Federation Square as it too developed as Melbourne's central and unifying public space, a central and public example of Melbourne's vibrant nature.

The 2010 Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival celebrates its eighth consecutive year at Federation Square in contributing to the arts, civic culture and cultural dimensions of this great public.

Since 2001, the Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival has also been proudly supported by the City of Melbourne and Federation Square in 2003.

In 2006, they were joined by the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

In 2008, City West Water joined as a Community Partner and Miele Australia as a Segment Partner.

Fo Guang Shan Melbourne and Buddha's Light International Association of Victoria acknowledges the continued generous support of the City of Melbourne and Federation Square, its management and staff; the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC) and its management and staff.