Bellingen has a strong affinity with the arts and is home to numerous festivals: historically the popular Global Carnival (often known simply as " The Global"), the Bellingen Jazz and Blues Festival, and the current Camp Creative, the Bellingen Music Festival (classical music), Bello Winter Music Festival and the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival, held for the first time in 2011. The first and original festival, an annual event, was the Azalea Festival, which included a procession of floats, the local brass band and pipeband, and various community organisations marching down Hyde Street to the cheers and applause of the spectators.