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The emergence of the concept of learning communities in recent years has seen the documentation of some innovative efforts to engage more people in learning activites. This paper presents a review of one of these: a one-week learning festival held over two consecutive years at a major shopping centre in an Australian capital city. Key partners in the festival included the shopping centre management, the state government, schools, TAFE institutes, private training providers, universities, local government and community organisations. The paper presents some conclusions about the value of such an event in terms of objectives identified worldwide for learning festivals, the extent to which such a festival might contribute to the development of a learning community, and the role of local government.