Kalbar Sunflower Festival

The Kalbar Sunflower Festival began the way the best country stories do — with hardship answered by imagination. In 2021, local lucerne farmers Jenny and Russell Jenner were battling one of the longest droughts in living memory, with water too scarce to keep their main crop alive. A supermarket bunch of sunflowers sparked the lightbulb: sunflowers thrive on very little water, and a paddock of them in bloom is one of the most joyful sights in agriculture. From that single idea grew a festival that now draws more than 13,000 visitors a year to a small Scenic Rim town.

The festival carries a deeper purpose too. After Russell's cancer diagnosis in late 2021, the event became a vehicle for fundraising — more than $115,000 raised for cancer care through the 2022 and 2023 festivals — and that spirit of community generosity continues to define it. The famous Devonshire tea stall, for one, supports hospital charities with every scone served. You're not just visiting a flower farm; you're part of something the district is genuinely proud of.

The scale has to be seen to be believed: more than one million sunflowers across roughly eight hectares of farmland, framed by the Scenic Rim's mountain skyline. The farm opens to the public only for the festival weekend each year, which is precisely what makes it special — and what makes tickets disappear. Recent editions have added a giant sunflower maze, live music from local artists, market stalls, food trucks, a children's hub with petting farm and sensory garden, sunflower art classes, long-table lunches among the blooms, and the beloved pick-your-own — a couple of dollars a stem, secateurs provided.

The 2026 festival ran over the first weekend of May and, true to form, sold out. If the golden paddocks are on your list, the pattern to know is simple: dates land in the cooler months, tickets typically go on sale around March, and they don't last. Join our notification list and we'll contact you the moment our next festival departures open.

Festival weekends transform a quiet country town, and the practicalities show it: long paddock-parking queues, capped entry sessions, and a 75-minute drive each way from Brisbane that's considerably longer in event traffic. A Cooee festival tour removes every one of those frictions — door-to-door coach travel from Brisbane, Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast pickup points, entry coordinated with our group allocation, and a host who knows exactly where the shortest queues and best photo angles are.

It also turns the journey into part of the day. The run out crosses the Scenic Rim's prettiest farmland, with commentary covering the district you're passing through — and on the way home, there's no tired driver in your group watching the road instead of the sunset.

Photographer's notes: sunflowers track the morning sun and stand brightest before midday; arrive early for soft light and unbruised blooms, and stay for the contre-jour shots as the afternoon angles in. A polarising filter earns its place against the Scenic Rim sky, closed-in shoes handle the working-farm ground, and a hat is non-negotiable in the open paddocks. And remember the flowers come with co-workers — the bees are gentle, busy, and part of the picture.

Family notes: recent festivals have included free children's activities — face painting, bubble play, animal petting, a mini-maze — making this one of the easiest big days out for mixed-age groups. Children typically attend free under the festival's ticketing, and our coaches carry pram-friendly storage.

Kalbar itself rewards a wander — a historic township of timber pubs and country bakeries in the heart of the Fassifern Valley. The wider district stacks the day with options: Boonah's café strip and galleries ten minutes south, the sailing waters of Lake Moogerah beneath the ramparts of Mount French, and the farm gates and roadside stalls that make the Scenic Rim one of Australia's most celebrated food regions. Our festival departures typically weave one or two of these stops around the farm session, so the day delivers the region as well as the blooms.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands the festival and our tours travel through — including the Ugarapul People of the Fassifern Valley and the peoples of the Yugambeh and Jagera language groups across the Scenic Rim — and pay respects to Elders past and present. The valley's deep human history long predates its farming story, and our commentary carries both with care.

Can't wait for festival season? The Scenic Rim shines year-round — our regular Scenic Rim day tour covers the rainforest, lookouts and farm-gate produce in any month, no ticket ballot required.

Morning. Coach departure from your pickup point with the Scenic Rim run as the warm-up act — the Fassifern Valley's patchwork farms, the wall of the Main Range on the horizon, and commentary that covers the district's farming story before you reach it. Arrival is timed for the morning session, when the blooms stand brightest and the paddock paths are at their quietest.

Midday. The festival proper: wandering the flower fields, losing the group in the maze (and finding them again at the live-music stage), market stalls of all things sunflower, food trucks and the famous charity Devonshire tea. Pick-your-own time is built in — stems travel home safely in the coach, a small detail that solo drivers learn the hard way.

Afternoon. Depending on the departure, the day rounds out with a Scenic Rim bonus — a Kalbar township wander, a Boonah café stop or a lookout pause — before the easy run home, golden-hour light on the ranges included at the right time of year. Door-to-door, the day asks nothing of your group but enjoyment.

What to bring: closed-in shoes for working-farm ground, hat and sunscreen for open paddocks, a water bottle, cash or card for stalls and stems, and the biggest memory card you own. Camera-shy guests do not exist at this festival; the flowers see to that.

Kalbar's story is written on its verandahs. Settled by German farming families in the 1870s and originally known as Engelsburg, the town renamed itself during the First World War but kept its heritage in the architecture — timber churches, a classic country pub, and a main street that film scouts adore. The surrounding Fassifern Valley remains serious farming country: carrots, onions and lucerne by the truckload, which is exactly the agricultural backbone the sunflower festival grew from.

The valley's grandstand is geological: Mount French's cliff line (a world-renowned rock-climbing crag) above Lake Moogerah's sailing waters, with Mount Greville and the Main Range completing the amphitheatre. It's the scenery that makes the festival photos sing — and the reason our guides insist the drive out is part of the ticket. Festival or not, this corner of the Scenic Rim rewards the trip; the sunflowers are simply its best-dressed weekend.