CANBERRA’S first “Lights on the Lake” show is set to be the highlight of Australia Day celebrations this week.

“Lights on the Lake” will begin on January 25 and run until January 28. Each night, the 12-minute display will begin at 8.30pm, with two more displays running at 9pm and 9.30pm, “transforming Lake Burley Griffin into a vibrant canvas with laser lights and colour projected on to two enormous water screens, with a backing soundtrack,” the organisers say. 

Accompanying night markets will open at 5pm, featuring food, drinks and crafts.

Other Australia Day celebrations in and around Canberra include:

• The National Citizenship and Flag Raising Ceremony will begin at 9am Rond Terrace, Commonwealth Park. A Seahawk SH-60R helicopter will fly the Australian flag, with another flag raised on-stage by Australia’s Federation Guard.

• At 10am, the Federation of Indian Associations of ACT has organised – a free barbecue with a kids’ drawing competition, a didgeridoo performance and other live music performances at 100 Sutherland Crescent, Gungahlin.

• At Regatta Point: At 10.30am there’s a free community barbecue with family-friendly entertainment and kids activities such as giant Connect Four, tennis and face painting. From 10.30am to 1.30pm, entertainers from The Fool Factory will feature dressed as Australian wildlife characters performing acrobatics. Between 11.45am and 2pm, there will be performances from Canberran artists NeonHoney and Leila King, as well as music from Areta Kaur and Alan Stewart. 

• From 10.30am, the Federation of Chinese Community of Canberra Inc has organised a food market on Gungahlin’s Gozzard Street with art and Aboriginal dance performances. 

• Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services is hosting an 11am Australia Day picnic at Glebe Park with a welcome to country smoking ceremony by a Ngunnawal elder and indigenous performances. 

• The Celebration of African Australians Inc are celebrating Australia Day with a midday “Afro Aboriginal Cultural Showcase” at 100 Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla, with African and indigenous performances, workshops and speeches.

• From 4.30pm, Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows headline a “collaborative line up of stellar First Nations and German artists” at The Harmonie German Club’s “Australia in Harmonie”.

• At 5pm, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council is also hosting Australia Day celebrations with live entertainment, a sausage sizzle and a 9pm firework show at Queanbeyan Park. 

Free light show on the lake for all the family