In the early 1990’s, the Darwin Italian community held two Italian festivals to showcase the spirit and pride of Italian culture in the Darwin community.

The Italian Festival Association (IFA) then went on to hold its first biennial event in May 2013 on the grounds of Parliament House in Darwin. Following the success of this event, the second Darwin Italian Festival took place in 2015 at Civic Park, in 2017 at the George Brown Botanical Gardens and in 2019 at Civic Park, attracting more than 20 000 people at each event. The next festival will occur on 13 May 2023 at Fort Hill Parklands, Darwin Waterfront.