THE Benalla Festival is a celebration of the Benalla Rural City's lifestyle, its community, country living and community spirit.

This year's event will be held over two weekends from October 29 until November 6 and expressions of interest are currently open for interested individuals, groups or organisations to run an event or activity as part of the Benalla Festival Program.

The Festival is a result of community collaboration to design events that celebrate and embrace all that is great about the Benalla region through art, music, dance, history, sport, family attractions, food, wine, exhibitions and much more.

The Festival, in different formats, has been running for more than 50 years and this year's theme is Our Community, Our Future... a chance to reimagine, reconnect and celebrate.

The Festival program will highlight the rural communities with events across townships during the first weekend from October while the second weekend will feature events in Benalla.

For more information over the comings months about what is planned for this year's program visit https://www.enjoybenalla.com.au/benalla–festival/ or https://www.facebook.com/BenallaFestival/.