🎉 Nowruz Festival 2025 – A Historic Celebration in the Heart of Perth

On Saturday, March 22, 2025, Forrest Place in Perth CBD came alive with music, colour, food, dance, and joy as IranWA – Iranians in Western Australia proudly presented the Nowruz Festival 2025.

What started as a dream became one of the most vibrant cultural celebrations ever held by the Iranian community in WA — and we’re thrilled to share a summary of this unforgettable day.

🌱 What is Nowruz?

Nowruz means “New Day” and marks the Iranian New Year — a 3,000-year-old celebration of spring, renewal, and hope. It is celebrated across Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond, bringing people together to reflect on the past year and embrace a fresh beginning.

🌟 Our Vision

Our goal was to:

• Celebrate Nowruz publicly and proudly for the first time in such a central and accessible location.

• Share our culture with the broader WA community.

• Bring together Iranian families, children, youth, and elders in a joyful and welcoming atmosphere.

• Create a festival that non-Iranians could also enjoy and learn from, building bridges and understanding.

👥 Attendance & Community Engagement

We initially expected 300–500 people, but were overwhelmed (in the best way!) when more than 2,000–3,000 people joined us throughout the afternoon and evening.

From start to finish, Forrest Place was buzzing — packed at times with people dancing, smiling, and enjoying every corner of the festival. Many watched from surrounding balconies and shopfronts. Passers-by stopped and stayed, and many joined in without even knowing what Nowruz was beforehand.

🛍️ Our Stallholders

The festival featured:

• Delicious Iranian food including Ash Reshteh, Kashk-e Bademjan, and sweets

• Persian bookshop and cultural vendors

• Handmade jewelry, crafts, pottery, and art

• Grocery and spice stalls selling Iranian products

• A rug display and stage carpet by Rug Bazaar

• A wide variety of items from passionate local businesses

Every stall almost sold out before the night was over — a great sign of public interest and support!

🎶 Performances & Cultural Highlights

• Live music and traditional dance had the whole square on their feet

• Our MC, Prince, brought energy, humor, and connection to the entire show

• Cultural presentations explained Nowruz traditions and the Haft-Seen table

• The show opened with a powerful Welcome to Country by Uncle Barry, met with full silence and deep respect

• We ended the night with an incredible fireworks show by Northern Light Fireworks that lit up the sky

❤️ Feedback from the Community

The feedback has been overwhelmingly emotional and positive. Comments poured in saying:

"After 13 years in Perth, this was the first time I didn’t feel homesick. "I’ve never felt so proud of being Iranian. "This was the best Persian event I’ve ever attended — here or anywhere in Australia."

We’ve received over 600 new followers on Instagram within 48 hours and hundreds of messages, shares, and stories. Even SBS Farsi reached out the next day to interview us, after hearing people in other states were talking about how special the festival was.

🔒 Safety, Cleanliness & Operations

• The entire event was incident-free and family-friendly

• Our security team was present but not required to step in at any point

• The area was cleaned thoroughly by IranWA volunteers after the event

• Our “Ask Me” volunteers helped guide non-Iranian guests and made everyone feel welcome

🙌 Thank You to Our Supporters

We are incredibly grateful to the following supporters and sponsors:

• City of Perth

• Office of Multicultural Interests (OMI)

• TLS Productions (Sound, Light, Screen)

• Local businesses and service providers

• All of our generous sponsors and donors

• Our volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this happen

💬 Final Reflection

We can confidently say that this event has left a mark on the Iranian community in WA — not just because of its success, but because of how it made people feel: proud, visible, celebrated, and connected.

We also believe this event proved something important:

The Iranian community in Western Australia deserves greater attention and support. We are present, we are active, and when given the opportunity — we deliver.

We hope this will be the first of many public Nowruz festivals, growing in size, diversity, and impact each year.

📸 Stay tuned as we upload more photos and videos from the day!💖 Thank you to everyone who joined us — and Nowruz Pirouz!

Photos by Ladi IG: https://www.instagram.com/ladooshka_/