The Port Festival runs every two years and the whole of Port Adelaide comes alive with…read moreperformances, exhibitions, artist market and free entrance to all museums in the surrounding areas. A perfect festival for family and anyone young and old. It's a brilliant initiative by the City of Port Adelaide Enfield in discovering the charm and beauty of this historic port. I took my kids here last year and it was a full day affair of free balloons, dancing to open air bands, indulging in Australian made ice cream and seafood galore, perusing the creative products by various artisans and taking full advantage of the free entrance to the SA Maritme Museum, National Railway Museum and the Aviation Museum. Expect lots of fun, giggles and huge smiles from all family members! Check out their website for the next Festival in 2013.

One of the things that stands out with this winery is that it happens to have some of the oldest…read morevines in the Barossa, not that you could probably work it out simply by driving through. Then again, I'm not much of an expert in the age of plants. The cellar door is rather small, but they do have a nice area outside where you can sit and enjoy some wine. In fact, the wine itself isn't all that bad either. While it is close to Tanunda, it is still a bit of a hike from the town, but then again you pretty much need a car to get anywhere in the Barossa.

This was the first winery I visited years ago that actually gave me palletable information on the…read moreins and outs of the winery's various vintages and complexities. It is such a heaving, complex beast, the winery, if you ever get a chance to check out the guts of one on your travels. Everything from planting, protecting, feeding and nurturing (I'm not kidding, Turkey Flat sprayed sunscreen on their vines last vintage! Who woulda thunk it!?) the vines, to the picking, producing, fermenting, bottling, marketing etc etc etc, there are a LOT of moving parts! And to try and understand them is why some people spend years at university learning the craft. However, most wineries won't give you all of their dirty little secrets (alright, some of them might, but they don't want to ruin their chance of a sale so it's unlikely!) that most of the winery workers know. Turkey Flat is the exception for me here. Not that there were any dirty little secrets to be told this time around, but the cellar door attendant, despite only doing 1 day a week, was extremely knowledgable about all of the wines and provided us with some great info on the various vintages, grapes and also general goings on in the area, following the Annual Barossa Vintage Festival which was held last weekend. Go check out the website for more info on the wines, and do yourself a favour and pop in here while you're up in the BV. It's a worthwhile experience and you will taste some truly magic wines.

The best thing about living in Adelaide is embracing the multitude of cultural events throughout…read morethe year. With a rich and diversified community here, you don't need to leave the city to partake in the international flavour. Dozynki festival is a celebration of harvest amongst the Polish community in Adelaide. The national costumes is colourful and absolutely pretty. When the festival kicks off, a huge wreath filled with wheat and rye and decorated with flowers, ribbons, hazelnuts and the fruit of the mountain ash tree makes its way through a procession. Later cultural performances, songs and dancers liven up the Festival whilst the crowd enjoy Polish food and Polish beer and vodka. I love sampling international cuisine and if you're like me, you'll dig in the cabbage rolls, Zurek (sour soup), goulash and more! It is truly a colourful event and exudes the charm and beauty of the Polish community.

My favorite weekend of the year. If you haven't previously attended such a festival, they are a…read moretreat. There are spectacular activities and events to enjoy. Historical re-enacments, Medieval pageantry, jousting, battles, music, dancing, feasting, artistry and crafts. Most come dressed in a medieval theme but it is not a must. There are medieval villages to explore and vendors of medieval style goods. The food selection is great! Rustic pies, lamb rolls, and so much more. You can buy alcoholic drinks at the tavern, with warm mulled wine, my favorite. The Knights and Viking warriors fighting in the combat arena is very entertaining. It has everyone involved with cheering each team on and many laughs. The Kings horses equestrian event is worth getting a good seat in the stand and waiting for! The horses and their riders in full costume are very majestic, and great to watch! There are belly dancers,story tellers, face and henna painters. Overall it is a very well run day, and all profits are put back into the community. A must do at least once and then you too will be back every year.

Held once a year last Sunday in November…read more The Semaphore Street Fair has successfully been running for the past few years but its future is in doubt and may or may not be around next year according to the Semaphore Road Traders Association, due to the local Council pulling the plug on funding. Considering it draws 15,000 to 20,000 people from all over Adelaide to the yearly event, it's a big decision. Without going into the politics and for those of you interested readers wishing to delve deeper, go to their website www.semaphoresa.com.au for full information. Purely as an independent visiting the most recent Fair held on Sunday November 27th 2011, every person and their dog was there on the glorious spring day that it was. Spanning from The Esplanade and 'sort of' spreading all the way down to Military Road, canopies flanked either side of the grassy median strip. A good variety of stall holders displaying their wares for sale, some quality handmade goods and quite a few non handmade as you get at every market, their products being browsed, stroked, admired and sometimes purchased. The atmosphere was buzzing as the day progressed and got hotter with more and more people arriving creating a river of bodies walking up and down the avenue of stalls. Spoiler AIert! I must point out at this stage the centre of the market spread simply disappeared, rather than having a continuous wall to wall of market stalls up and down Semaphore Road, there was a break separating the market atmosphere into two sections! A peculiar marketing decision with the massive gap in the middle of Semaphore Road compared to previous years and it gave an appearance of less stall holders. To get from one section of the market to the other was a disheartening walk to what seemed like a mirage in the distance on a hot day. Shop owners were having a field day especially food vendors and cafes as customers spilled out from their premises and after speaking with some stall holders not everyone was receiving market share. There was a handful of incidental stall placements in awkward spots receiving only a trickle of walking traffic come past their sites, compared to the hoards of passersby down the two main strips. On the day it appeared to be a success but market organisers need to ensure a fair and equitable event for all participants.

Celebrate the multicultural Malaysia in Malaysia Fest or popularly known as MFest…read more Held at Victoria Square, the festival brings together the beautiful culture, cuisine and arts and crafts of everything Malaysia. With cultural performances representing the various states across Malaysia, be in awe as you witness performances from the Dayak, Iban, Indian and Chinese community. There is also the silat performance, which is Malaysia's traditional martial arts which interest many. I haven't met anyone in Adelaide who doesn't enjoy a good plate of Malaysian food. Come here hungry and feed your gastronomical senses as you dig into the nasi lemak, murtabak, popiah, ayam goreng (fried chicken) and more delightful bites. Very much a family friendly festival for all to partake.

Hosted by the Australian Indonesian Association of SA, the Indofest is one of my favourite Asian…read morefestival as I get to savour all the delicious Asian food. As all cultural festivals, the Indofest aims to promote dance, culture, music, arts and craft and food of Indonesia to the South Australian community. If you are familiar with batik, you will find some lovely batik fabrics, shirts and tops for sale here. For a nonprofit organisation, the Festival organisers work hard in bringing in famous band and singers from Indonesia much to the delight of the Indonesian community. All in all, it's a fun and family friendly festival for all to enjoy. Note: Free entrance.