La Festa - Faces of Australia is Griffith's International, Music, Food and Wine Festival.

The festival is held annually on Easter Saturday in the city's picturesque main street, Banna Avenue.

This festival is a real celebration of everything the city has to offer, its colourful and dynamic multicultural community and its premium wine and food industry.

La Festa is the perfect family day out with lively and exciting children's entertainment and performances to keep the kids busy for hours while mum and dad sit back and enjoy the music, food and wine.

Every year the festival brings to town some of Australia's most exciting and dynamic world music performers. Highlights over past years have been the high energy performance provided by the 2005 nominee’s for Australia's Best World Music Act, The Borderers. The main stage has also been graced by the Tania Bosak Continental Combo, a wildly dynamic and energetic Continental Quintet, featuring a unique blend of Gypsy, Latin, Brazilian, Balkan and Swing! Original interpretations of great Cumbians, Italian love songs and Croatian tangos. It’s safe to say that La Festa has featured a colourful, talented, multicultural line up year in and year out and will continue to do so whilst providing a show second to none!

However, an important aspect of the festival programming is the large component of performances from Griffith's ethnic communities. The community input to the festival is one that displays the unique multiculturalism and community harmony of Griffith.

Tantilising flavors from around the globe

Country First Credit Union’s La Festa – Faces of Australia has become an event that will indulge all your senses. There is no better way to indulge than by taking a stroll along the avenue of wine and food stalls that line the event site.

The amazing aroma’s wafting in the air from the many food stalls will draw you in to sample the delicious flavors. There will be a variety of international food on offer from the good old Australian barbeque, German Kranskis that pop with flavor, traditional Italian pizza’s and pasta, Chinese delicacies, Dutch style pancakes plus the best coffee you can find – and that is only a few of the stalls that will tantalize your taste buds!

Enjoying food with wine is definitely something that the local Griffith community is fond of and why not when there are so many award winning wineries at our finger tips! The variety of wine stalls that will be participating in the 2009 event is going to be a treat for La Festa visitors. Whether it be the delicious fruitiness of a glass of moscato or the spicy hint of a shiraz, whatever your palate desires you will find in the collection of wineries on display. Ranging from small boutique wineries to large producers you will not only be able to sample the array of delicious wine on offer but also hear the interesting stories that create the colourful history of the wine industry in this area. With many of the wineries still being family owned and operated chances are your drop will be poured by someone who can tell you a tale or two of how it all came about.

If you like what you’ve been sampling at La Festa you can always head out to the cellar door and grab a case of your favorite drop on Sunday.

So bon appétit, bil ha’na wal shiftá, guten appétit, salute, aish karo, kanpai, cheers  …… we hope you enjoy!