The 2025 Ballarat Seniors Festival Community Expo has been hailed a huge success, with hundreds of older residents coming together to celebrate healthy ageing.
Held at the new Ballarat Showgrounds and Event Centre in Mount Rowan for the first time, the 2025 edition of the expo featured more than 60 stallholders, showcasing a vibrant range of local organisations, activities, and services catering to older adults.
The headline event as part of the annual Ballarat Seniors Festival, the expo has grown rapidly since it was first held in 2023.
With a lively entertainment stage throughout the day, class demonstrations, craft workshops, an art exhibition, coffee with a cop, and a vintage car display all new additions this year, the expo went to a whole new level within the wide expanses of the new showgrounds.
Delivered by the City of Ballarat, the expo supports the Ageing Well in Ballarat Strategy, which has a vision of Ballarat being an age-friendly community where people feel valued, connected, included, respected, and confident to participate fully in life however they choose.
City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Tracey Hargreaves said the event was a shining example of a tremendous Ballarat Seniors Festival.
"The entire month of October has been a fantastic celebration of our older residents and I'm incredibly proud to see how much work has gone into the month," she said.
"It's wonderful to see so many people come together to enjoy the entertainment, discover new opportunities, and connect with local clubs and services.
"The energy and enthusiasm on display at the showgrounds really shows that ageing in Ballarat is about staying active, involved and inspired."
The 2025 Ballarat Seniors Festival has offered a diverse program of free and low-cost activities across Ballarat, including concerts, art classes, heritage tours, social gatherings, and sporting lessons.
It also included last week's official book launch of Older Women's Recipes for Respect Ballarat, a new book that celebrates the lives, stories and contributions of older women in Ballarat.
The month will conclude with the prestigious Ballarat Seniors Awards on Friday 31 October, which is the City of Ballarat's way of acknowledging residents 60 years and older who give their time and efforts back to the Ballarat community.
