Cairns residents embrace our tropical culture and celebrate with a wonderfully diverse range of events each year. Festival season is usually in the cooler months, from May until September. Regular highlights of the Cairns major annual events calendar include:
- Great Barrier Reef Masters Games held every two years in May
- Cairns Children's Festival in May
- Cairns Ecofiesta held in May/ June
- IRONMAN Cairns in June
- Cairns Marathon in July
- Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair (CIAF), an internationally-renowned arts event held in July
- Cairns Festival held in August/ September
- Cairns Amateurs horse racing carnival held in September
- Understory Film Festival held in November (but entries open earlier in the year)
