Stanthorpe Apple & Grape Harvest Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Queensland calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year.
Stanthorpe Apple & Grape Harvest Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Queensland calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Stanthorpe in Granite Belt, in the heart of one of Australia's most distinctive wine areas. It has been running since 1966, with a long unbroken local tradition behind it.
10-day festival with 60,000+ visitors. Grape Crushing Championships (since 1984), Grand Parade, Food & Wine Fiesta, Banchetto Italiano long lunch, markets, fireworks. Queensland's longest-running festivals. 60th anniversary. Harvest and grape festivals — fiestas de la vendimia, festas das vindimas, weinlesefeste — are some of the longest-running celebrations in their regions, with many running uninterrupted for a century or more. Programmes typically combine grape-stomping demonstrations, traditional music, parades of allegorical floats, food stalls offering regional specialities, and tastings of the area's wines. The events have strong local character and are often as much community celebrations as wine programmes, with town councils, parish committees and local producer associations sharing the organisational load. Many festivals incorporate religious elements — blessings of the harvest, processions to the parish church — that connect the wine calendar to the liturgical year. The event is organised by Stanthorpe Apple & Grape Harvest Festival Committee, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Queensland's wine country centres on the Granite Belt and South Burnett regions in the southeastern corner of the state — at higher altitudes (around 800-1,000m on the Granite Belt) where the cooler climate makes viticulture viable. The region produces a wide range of varieties, with Verdelho, Shiraz and emerging 'alternative' varieties (Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Saperavi) increasingly successful. The Granite Belt around Stanthorpe, with its distinctive granite boulders and cool microclimate, is the most-developed wine-tourism zone.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for 27 February - 8 March 2026. Cost details are best confirmed directly with the organiser ahead of travel. Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at appleandgrape.org. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Queensland's Granite Belt is reached most easily via Brisbane airport (BNE), with Stanthorpe (the wine-tourism centre) 3 hours southwest by car. The region pairs wine tourism with the Stanthorpe high-country food culture (apple and stone-fruit production), the Girraween National Park's distinctive granite landscapes, and the wider Darling Downs and Scenic Rim regions of southeast Queensland.
