The Firstival story
Firstival is a proud annual initiative of LibrariesSA, the collaborative, state-wide network for South Australia’s public libraries.
Hosted throughout July across the state’s 130+ library venues, this ‘festival of firsts’ features hundreds of free or low-cost events, classes and workshops just for beginners, inviting people of all ages and life stages to try something new.
Launched in 2023, the inaugural Firstival featured approximately 350 events across 45 libraries (95% of which were free), attracting 41,276 attendees with an increase in monthly membership of 23% (July 2023 compared to July 2022).
The aim of Firstival remains to drive public library rediscovery, visitation, engagement and membership, affirming through in-person experience that today’s libraries are thriving, open-access community classrooms where everyone is welcome to come and connect, and encouraged to learn and share skills.
The Firstival concept, branding and associated messages to encourage people to ‘Try something new‘ in South Australia’s public libraries were first developed by the Nation agency in 2022.
If you’d like to learn more about Firstival, we’d love to share.