Australia Day in Perth is a huge annual event with hundreds of thousands of people gathering on the foreshore reserves around Perth city to view the annual fireworks display. Many families and groups of friends gather early in the afternoon or even in the morning to make the most of the public holiday and often the very warm weather.

Australia Day is always held on the 26th January and if you happen to be in Perth on this date, we encourage you to join us in celebrating our annual day (no need to eat vegemite or drink cheap Aussie beer!).

Each year, normally in April, dozens of the world's top surfers come to Margaret River to contest the annual competition. Margaret River and the surrounding region is famous globally for amazing surf and the annual competition here is currently an event on the ASP World Surfing Tour. In 2017, the 'Drug Aware Margaret River Pro' will be the second stop on the Men's Samsung Galaxy Championship Tour and will be held between March 29th and April 9th.

The AFL Grand Final won't be held in Perth for a very, very long time as the annual match is contracted to be played at Melbourne's MCG for many years to come. There is however, often several finals matches played in Perth and plenty of events held around Perth on AFL Grand Final Day.

What the hell is AFL I hear you ask!? The Australian Football League is Australia's number 1 sport and is a unique game played mostly in Australia only. It's a fast paced, physical game with loyal fans packing out stadiums across Australia and making it a unique experience for sport enthusiastic visitors to Australia.

Mandurah is about an hour drive south of Perth and annually holds an event they call the 'Crab Fest'. This is a great opportunity for backpackers to get together and share their sexually transmitted diseases and public lice.

No, wait. The Crab Festival in Mandurah is named so because the area is famous for the crabs that call the estuary there home. During season, crabbing is very popular in the area and during the festival, a range of Mandurah Crab/crap dishes are available.

On one of our South West Tours, we made Crab Fest one of the first stops. Given the crowd numbers and sea of people, it took our Tour Guide less than 2 minutes to lose every single tour guest. All of whom had wandered off in various directions. Luckily we had already made plans to meet at the town's #1 Tourist Attraction for Backpackers (the bottleshop).

Held annually in Feb/March, The Perth International Arts Festival is actually the longest running cultural festival in Australia (it's been running since 1953!). PIAF includes various musical events, large public artwork, theatre shows, opera & visual arts. As part of PIAF, the Film Festival & Writers Festival are held at different times of the year.

For Backpackers visiting Perth on a budget during the Perth International Arts Festival, there is often free public events to attend as well as large-scale public art works to view. For example, the 2016 PIAF included a free opening night concert including well known West Australian musicians.

For more information, visit: perthfestival.com.au

Sculpture by the Sea is a unique annual event held on Cottesloe Beach in Perth. In 2017, it will be the 13th annual exhibition and again will be held in March with this year's dates being from the 3rd of March to the 20th March 2017. Although a unique event, this same exhibition is also done on one of Australia's more famous beaches - Bondi in Sydney, NSW. If you're a backpacker visiting Perth in March, you have to check it out. Entry is free and Cottesloe Beach is relatively easy and cheap to get to from hostels in either Perth/Northbridge or Fremantle (Cottesloe is one of the stops on the Perth - Fremantle train line). Many visitors to Perth make Cottesloe Beach one of their main stops regardless of whether or not this event is on.