Parrtjima 2024: 10-day event kicks off on Friday

New light installations and a marketplace will be on offer at the ninth iteration of the Red Centre’s popular Parrtjima Festival. Read how you can enjoy the action.

Attendees to the 2024 Parrtjima Festival will be in for ten days of lights, learning and fun as the popular event returns for the ninth time.

Running from April 12 to 21, the festival promises to be brighter than ever before.

The free event will play host to light installations and illuminations, artworks, talks with Indigenous leaders and industry voices, musical performances and markets.

Last year, more than 20,000 people attended, smashing records for the event.

In growing the festival, guests will bare witness to more of the MacDonnell Ranges brought to life with an extended light and sound show as well as Indigenous art projected onto Alice Springs Desert Park.

MacDonnell Ranges Light show at Parrtjima 2023. Picture: Supplied

Other new light installations include lit-up cars, an immersive memorial to the late Dr MK Turner and artwork displayed on screens representing the cyclic work of Country.

All of this will be alongside educational talks from individuals from all types of industries as well as a three-night marketplace selling art, bush medicine, jewellery and beauty products from local Aboriginal businesses and art centres.

Children play at Grounded Parrtjima 2023. Picture: Supplied

NT Major Events Company chief executive Suzana Bishop said the event will benefit many stakeholders.

“Parrtjima not only brings together the world’s oldest living cultures with leading-edge

technology, it brings together people from across the country to connect and engage with our

First Nations people and cultures,” she said.

“It is also an event that makes a meaningful and positive impact on local communities, as well as the local economy.”

Those unable to attend can get in on the action too, with a virtual tour live from Friday night at facebook.com/ParrtjimaAustralia.