The 2025 Barossa Vintage Festival. Images courtesy Treasury Wine Estates

The 2025 Barossa Vintage Festival, held from 23 to 27 April, celebrated the region’s rich winemaking heritage and community spirit. Established in 1947, the event is Australia’s longest-running wine festival and a hallmark of vintage celebrations across South Australia. For decades, it has brought together the local community and wine lovers to mark the end of harvest with creativity, colour, and pride.

The festival has grown over the decades into a week-long celebration that draws thousands of visitors to the region. Highlights include wine tastings, local food markets, live music, and one of the festival’s signature events, the parade, which was introduced in its second year.

Rebecca Reynolds, co-director of this year’s Barossa Vintage Festival, said the success and energy of the festival is a great reflection of the community’s pride and passion for the region.

“It’s so exciting to see our wine, food, arts, culture, and heritage come together and be celebrated. This year we’ve had 91 events registered in the program,” said Reynolds.

“We had a lot of events at different locations, and they’re all supported by the community. Whether that’s people taking part in the events or making the iconic scarecrows and parade floats – it’s an opportunity for people to get behind and celebrate our region.”

Jorge Henry, packaging site manager at Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) in the Barossa Valley, reflected on the significance of the festival to the region’s winemaking community.

“This is the day when we stop to create a space to celebrate after the massive amount of work by all our teams through the vintage,” said Henry. “Today we say thank you to our families and friends who’ve supported us through one of the busiest times of year – and say cheers to our extraordinary Barossa Valley community.”

With a winemaking history dating back to the 1840s, today’s Barossa Valley features around 550 growers, 170 wineries, and 12,000 hectares under vine – including some of the oldest vineyards in the world. Producing more than 40 varietals and best known for Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, and Riesling, the region accounts for more than a quarter of the value of South Australia’s grape and wine sector.

It’s also home to around 80 hectares of vines that are more than 125 years old – known as ‘ancestor vines’. Scientists from The Australian Wine Research Institute have been documenting the history and genetics of the resilient vines, with some producers seeking to have their heritage listed with UNESCO.

Anthony Catanzariti, director of wine and grape sourcing at TWE (which was a major sponsor of the event) walked in the parade for the first time this year, after living in the Barossa for more than 20 years.

“Seeing the strong turnout as we walked the eight kilometres from Nuriootpa to Tanunda was the perfect way to mark the end of vintage – and being able to take my kids with me as well is really fantastic,” said Catanzariti.

Many Barossa locals have cherished memories of the festival.

Speaking on the sidelines of the parade, Barossa Mayor Bim Lange OAM recalled festivals sitting in the back of his dad’s ute as a schoolkid.

“I remember watching the floats go past, and it still has the same excitement, energy and enthusiasm. The festival is very important to our community – it’s a chance for people to celebrate and come together, and it gets bigger and better every time,” said Lange.

Scott Hazeldine, CEO of Barossa Australia, echoed the sentiment, describing the festival as “a genuine celebration and coming together”.

“Industry plays a really important part of it, but community lies at the heart of it. It’s one of the few times in our calendar where we come together en masse and have a good party,” said Hazeldine.

“I’ve marched in the parade a couple of times and it’s always great interacting with the crowd. It’s hard to beat it, it’s a uniquely Barossan thing – there’s not many places that have something like it.”

Member for Schubert Ashton Hurn praised organisers, all the volunteers, businesses and sponsors who worked so hard to deliver the 2025 Barossa Vintage Festival.

“For 75 years the festival has brought together our community to celebrate the vintage, a time-honoured tradition and another reason the Barossa is so unique.

“While we all get to enjoy the various events, what goes unseen are the many hours behind the scenes from volunteers who work incredibly hard. These locals and their contributions make the festival a success, alongside the committee and the sponsors who have helped to make it all possible.

“The Barossa Vintage Festival is a true celebration of our community, and we are all the richer for it,” Hurn said.

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