Granny Smith Festival

The Granny Smith Festival is an annual festival held in Eastwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It began in 1985 and is now the largest annual event of its type in Sydney's Northern District, attracting over 80,000 people each year. The festival is held on and around Eastwood Oval on the third Saturday of October to commemorate 19th-century pioneer Maria Ann "Granny" Smith, credited with producing the Granny Smith apple and celebrated for providing the Ryde-Hunters Hill area with prosperity. The festival begins at 9:00 am and concludes at 8:00 pm.

The highlights are the Grand Parade down Rowe Street and the fireworks display. There are also stalls, community events, live entertainment, and rides. It is a festival tradition that the New South Wales Mounted Police lead the Grand Parade.

The Granny Smith Festival in 2007 was of particular significance, in that it became a major campaign venue for the Australian federal election, 2007. For the first time in the Festival's 22-year history, it was officially opened by the (then) local Member of Parliament, Prime Minister John Howard. There were speculations that his appearance was largely due to the emergence of a serious challenge towards not just his Coalition government, but indeed his very own parliamentary seat of Bennelong, from high-profile ALP candidate Maxine McKew. Apart from Howard and McKew, a number of other local politicians, along with hundreds of volunteers representing numerous political parties and interest groups, attended the Festival, with a large contingent of media crew following their campaign trails.

The 2008 Granny Smith Festival was of important significance with the visit of African Prince Mark.

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