The festival is held over 18 days in August and comprises a series of events including outdoor concerts, workshops, theatre, dance music, comedy, cabaret, film and visual arts.

Darwin has a tradition of street parades and festival events dating back to early European settlement, following the issuing of Letters Patent annexing the Northern Territory to South Australia, 1863.

[1] The Township of Palmerston (as Darwin was then named) was surveyed by the South Australian Surveyor General GW Goyder in 1869 and by 1888 the non-Indigenous population of the Northern Territory consisted of around 1,200 Europeans and 6,000 Chinese people.

By this time, largely through the restrictions of the White Australia Policy, Darwin's Asian population was in decline and amid growing civil unrest, trade union- organised marches gained in popularity.

A small number of Italian migrants from Patagonia, Argentina, landed at Port Darwin in 1914 and found employment at Vestey's Meatworks.

[4] At the end of the Second World War, Darwin reverted to civil control, with many of the evacuated administrative staff and the civilian population returning early in 1946.

[7][8] Although much of China Town had been dismantled, a small number of Chinese people returned to Darwin after the war, re-establishing their businesses and building new homes in the outlying suburbs.

Initial applications were made to the Regional Grants Committee in each local centre and passed on to the Administrator or to the Minister for final approval.

In 1964/65 the first of these grants for the staging of exhibitions and events was received by the City of Darwin Festival Committee; the North Australian Eisteddfod Council; and the Centralian Arts Society.

[14] The festivities were temporarily halted by the evacuation of Darwin following Cyclone Tracy, which devastated the city and its northern suburbs on Christmas Day 1974.