Lake Bolac Eel Festival

The Lake Bolac Eel Festival is a celebration of the eel migration season in a sacred space.

It’s a true one-of-a-kind festival, attended by local clans and highlighted by marriage, ceremony, and events.

Lake Bolac Eel Festival 2024 Dates, Ticket Prices, Program & Live Music

It takes place twice a year; once during the autumn, typically during late March or early April, as this is when the eels start their migration to the sea. This is also when the indigenous communities nearby gather around Lake Bolac and Salt Creek to harvest the eels, do business, and partake in rituals and ceremonies.

The festival offers a relaxed vibe and a way for visitors to get up close and personal with the indigenous communities and uncover what is sacred to them.

Most importantly, the Lake Bolac Eel Festival highlights the Aboriginal community’s cultural and artistic aspects and promotes the respect of their cultural heritage. It also seeks to strengthen respect and friendship among indigenous and non-indigenous people, while promoting the conservation of Lake Bolac and nearby bodies of water.

Aside from the fine quality of eels, the Lake Bolac Eel Festival has an exciting line-up of events. These include live music, an art auction, workshops, forums, and displays.

An integral part of each year’s program is the forum which offers a series of engaging and insightful presentations from guest speakers highlighting the theme for the year. In 2016 Bill Gammage, Bruce Pascoe and Damien Bell each spoke on aspects of aboriginal land management.

Other forums have focused on grasslands, volcanoes, return to country, migration – of people, plants and animals, biodiversity of indigenous grasslands, climate, energy and the future. Always informative and sometimes confronting, it is a highly anticipated part of the weekend.

Lake Bolac is located in Western Victoria in Australia.