Central Geelong Shopping Festival & Sidewalk Sales is back for 2020.
In an effort to support local businesses, and thus generating and strengthening the economic impact for our own community following an incredibly tumultuous six months, the annual Central Geelong Shopping Festival & Sidewalk Sales returns for 2020 with a whole new look.
With health and safety of ourselves and others being the first priority in everything we do, this year’s event is being reimagined to run across seven days this year, running from Monday 2 November to Sunday 8 November including the traditional Melbourne Cup on Tuesday 3 November.
Keeping with tradition (especially for those that love to shop), businesses right across Central Geelong will continue trading on the footpath, offering a huge range of special offers and sale items for you to throw your credit card at, with many more offering in-store specials as part of the Central Geelong Shopping Festival and Sidewalk Sales. You can browse the full list of deals here.
While the shopping is all good fun (and your money is then recycled back to the community), this exciting week-long festival will feature a slew of new activities that cater for small groups and physical distancing, including self-fill goodie bags, a video series and a major competition with $5,000 worth of vouchers up for grabs.
A real highlight of this year’s festival is the aforementioned ‘self-fill goodie bags’, which allows shoppers to enjoy treats from some of the fabulous Central Geelong retailers. For $25 (your bag must be pre-paid online), Geelong shoppers can indulge in more than $120 worth of goodies from local businesses, including hand cream from Townhouse Living, chocolate from Organic Larder, beauty samples from Myer Geelong and a silicone snorkel from Geelong Dive Centre, among others. Simply collect your empty goodie bag from the pink Shopping Festival Info Caravan (near the entrance to Market Square) and then visit each participating business to receive an exciting goodie bag item. You need to pre-pay for your bag online, there are no payment facilities at the caravan.
We all know shopping can be a tiring exercise, so keep fuelled up throughout the festival with the range of lunch specials and alfresco dining options in the central Geelong area. There’s an Italian Native Grape Wine Flight lunch for $50 per person at Caruggi Italian Restaurant, 50% off your first experience at Central Nutrition, free Vietnamese coffee with any food purchase from Viet Rolls, $2 milkshakes from Degani, and six dumplings from Family Pho for $8.50. You’ll also find offers from Mavs Greek Restaurant, Moo Mouth Coffee, Curls & Swirls, Malaga Restaurant, Neo Cafe Restaurant, Roll’d Geelong and the Sporting Globe, among others. We recommend checking out the offers here and making the most of the elite meal deals.
Our personal favourite part of the festival is the of course the ‘Sweet Street’, which usually sees Little Malop Street become a little hub of dessert treats available to the public. While we can’t enjoy the traditional Sweet Street, this year it will run as a self-guided experience, letting shopper discover some of Central Geelong tasty desserts at their own pace. There will be delicious takeaway street treats from Twisted Dessert Bar, Baking Bliss, James Street Bakery, Augustus Gelatery, Moo Mouth Coffee and Central Nutrition. Once again, you need to pre-pay for your ticket online (just $15) as there are no payment facilities at the caravan.
While Melbourne Cup festivities and Sidewalk Sales look a little different this year, it’s still an exciting time in regards to the opportunities it gives to local retailers. The places we shop, where we eat and where we indulge, all make up a part of our community home, especially the unique one-of-a-kind businesses that locals know and love.
It’s time to break out the sensible shoes and loosen your purse strings; this event will keep you coming back all week.
You can view all the activities happening throughout the festival via the Central Geelong website.
