Gather Round | Festival of Footy

Gather Round is returning to South Australia from Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April, following the incredible success of the first two years. Gather Round 2025 will again see a round of the Premiership Season fixture played in South Australia, with nine matches over four days, and all 18 clubs descending on Adelaide and South Australia. The 2025 event dates will coincide with school holidays in Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. The Festival of Footy program is a collation of independently hosted activations and special offers from businesses across South Australia. The program is open to all regional areas and is free to join.

Getting involved is easy!

Your business can put on a special deal or event to attract visitors travelling to experience Gather Round.

Examples of deals: 

  • Wear your footy colours to receive a free/discounted tasting
  • A distillery, brewery might offer a new tasting paddle

Examples of events: 

  • A winery to host a picnic on their lawns over the Gather Round weekend aimed towards families
  • Amplify your venue with live entertainment and additional food offerings during Gather Round.

Key Dates

  • 13 November | Applications open
    • Successful applicants notified once reviewed by SATC and approved by AFL
  • 14 January | Applications closed
  • January / February | ATDW listings finalised
  • March | Campaign promotion commences, and businesses post events on social channels
  • April | Gather Round (Thurs 10 – Sun 13 April)
  • May | Feedback survey

Guidelines

There are a few DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to planning your deal or event within the associated events ‘Festival of Footy’ program. Download the Festival of Footy Toolkit for full guidelines.

  • First, all interested businesses must register via the Eventotron portal and include the requested detail – that is the most important!
  • Businesses must not use AFL Intellectual Property (which includes terms ‘AFL’ and ‘Gather Round’ as well as trademarked logos for AFL and Gather Round), this includes the use of the terms in the title of the deal or event.
  • Businesses should not imply or pass themselves off as a partner of the AFL, any AFL Clubs or any Gather Round matches and cannot integrate their brand with AFL branding or run a consumer promotion to win tickets to Gather Round.
  • Businesses cannot be promoted or activate within AFL controlled environments (unless otherwise approved by the AFL).

DOWNLOAD THE TOOLKIT

How to Apply

Register Your Interest via Eventotron

  1. Visit https://www.eventotron.com/
  2. Click 'Login / Sign up' If you have previously registered an event with Festival of Footy, please use your existing login details.
  3. Click on 'Festivals & Seasons' and search for 'Festival of Footy 2025'
  4. Click 'Apply'
  5. Work your way through the application by completing Steps 1 – 4
  6. Once you submitted and finalised your application it will be reviewed and approved by AFL

ATDW Listing

To be promoted on southaustralia.com your deal or event will need to be registered on ATDW (Australian Tourism Data Warehouse) once you are approved.

  1. Register or login to your ATDW account
  2. Create an ATDW listing for your event or add a 'Deal' to your existing listing.
  3. Listing appears on southaustralia.com
  4. Listing visible for promotion and eligible to generate ATDW leads

For support in creating your ATDW listing, visit https://tourism.sa.gov.au/support/atdw.