Easter marketing ideas for 2027: an early Easter plan for QLD and NSW businesses

Easter marketing ideas need an earlier start in 2027, because the long weekend kicks off on Good Friday 26/03/2027, while plenty of businesses are still clearing their inbox from January. This plan is for local businesses across Queensland and New South Wales that want a slice of four days off, two sets of trading rules and two school holiday fortnights.

Inside: the two states' Easter rules side by side, whether you're running one Easter or two, ideas by business type and the visitors who pour into regional towns. Paint gets one section near the end; everything else works whether you book a night or not.

A March Easter means a February plan

Easter Sunday can land anywhere from 22 March to 25 April. In 2027 it lands on 28/03/2027, close to the early end of that window and eight days earlier than in 2026. The upshot: anything you'd normally sort in early March needs sorting in February.

The stretch is crowded, too. International Women's Day falls on Monday 08/03/2027, Queensland state schools finish Term 1 the day before Good Friday, and NSW clocks don't go back until Sunday 04/04/2027, leaving that state an hour ahead of Queensland all weekend. Our 2027 marketing calendar for QLD and NSW maps every other date worth planning around.

Is it worth the scramble? The Easter 2025 forecast from the Australian Retailers Association (which has since merged into the Australian Retail Council) and Roy Morgan, released 08/04/2025 after surveying 2,041 Australians aged 18 and over, expected 15.2 million people to spend $2.2 billion AUD on Easter food and chocolate. It also tipped 4.55 million people to travel, spending around $11.1 billion, and 6.2 million to take on a DIY project, worth $6.7 billion in total. Three different baskets, and only one is full of eggs.

Easter 2027 in QLD and NSW, side by side

The two states agree on the public holidays and part ways on almost everything else. Here's the long weekend at a glance, from each government's official guidance.

The big split is Easter Sunday, when a Queensland shop may be open while its NSW cousin is locked up. In NSW, the restricted trading day rules exempt small shops with four or fewer employees working that day, no more than two owners and no other shop, shops with a hotel or small bar licence, shops in some exempted local government areas and a list of shop types that includes cafes, restaurants, florists, cake and pastry shops, newsagencies and chemists. In Queensland, independent retail shops (no more than 30 people working in the shop at any one time, among other tests) can open across Easter except Good Friday, and one that's predominantly a food or grocery shop can open on Good Friday too.

Rules change, so check Queensland's Easter trading hours each year, and confirm your dates on the official Queensland public holidays and NSW public holidays pages. This is general information only: if you're unsure, ask the regulator before you print the poster.

One Easter or two? The school holiday stagger

Queensland's autumn holidays start on Good Friday. NSW students sit through the long weekend and break two weeks later, from 12/04/2027, the very day Queensland heads back. Both are on the official Queensland term dates and NSW term and holiday calendar pages. For a lot of businesses, that means 2027 has two Easter seasons, not one.

Wave one: the long weekend and Queensland's fortnight

From 26/03/2027 to 11/04/2027, Queensland is on holiday time and NSW locals squeeze a four-day break out of a working term. This wave is Easter itself: long lunches, hosting gifts, treats, short trips and home projects.

Wave two: the NSW fortnight

From 12/04/2027 to 23/04/2027, NSW is on the move while Queensland is back at desks. Northern Rivers, Gold Coast and Mid North Coast businesses can expect the NSW crowd to roll in just as the Queensland one heads home.

So write two sets of messages: one sells the long weekend, the other sells the holidays. If your town pulls visitors from both states, you've got close to four busy weeks, not four busy days.

Easter marketing ideas by business type

Bakeries, chocolatiers and food producers

• Make chocolate a grown-up gift. Single-origin bars, chilli and sea salt, a tasting flight to pair with coffee or a dessert wine. Adults buy for adults, so box it beautifully.
• Run pre-orders with a hard cut-off. Publish your Thursday 25/03/2027 and Saturday 27/03/2027 collection windows early.
• Plan for the heat. A late-March afternoon in Bundaberg or Townsville is no friend to chocolate, so build in cool packs or collection-only options.
• If tastings are part of the plan, sort food safety, allergens and the venue's permission first. Our guide to cafe and food producer marketing covers the basics.

Cafes, restaurants and pubs

• Own the Sunday. Cafes and restaurants are on the NSW exempt list, so on Easter Sunday yours might be one of the few doors open on the strip. Tell people before Thursday.
• Sell a plan, not a menu. A set Easter Saturday lunch for four or a grazing box for the backyard barbecue. People hosting relatives want decisions made for them.
• Be upfront about surcharges. If you charge one on public holidays, the ACCC's price display rules say the menu must carry the words "A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days]", at least as prominently as the most prominent price.
• Roster early and fairly. Fair Work notes that all employees have a right to be absent on a public holiday, and those who work one may be entitled to extra pay, such as public holiday rates. Check the pay rules that apply.

Retail and gift shops

• Treat Saturday as the main event in NSW. With Good Friday and Easter Sunday off-limits for most non-exempt NSW retailers, Easter Saturday carries the weekend. Staff it like December.
• Back the home projects. In the same 2025 forecast, Easter DIY spending averaged $1,082 a person, up 27 per cent on the year before. Homewares, garden, furniture and hardware stores have an Easter story with no chocolate in sight.
• Build a "going to someone's place?" table. A candle, a good jam, a bunch of flowers: what people grab on the way to Easter lunch. Put it by the door.

Salons, clinics and other services

• Fill the pre-Easter rush. Hair, nails, brows and massage book out before a long weekend, so give your regulars first dibs on the Thursday slots.
• Gift the time. A voucher for a massage, facial or blow-dry makes a lovely grown-up Easter gift, and it won't melt in the glovebox.
• Market the return. Queensland's "back to it" moment starts on 12/04/2027 and NSW's lands at the end of April, so time rebooking emails to each state.

Whatever your trade, don't slash prices to match the supermarket aisle. Win on taste, wrapping and convenience instead.

Easter on the road: getting regional towns ready

In regional Queensland and NSW, Easter is a travel weekend first and a chocolate weekend second. And it isn't only school holiday traffic: the 2025 ARA and Roy Morgan forecast counted about one million Australians aged 50 to 64, and another million aged 65 and over, planning to travel at Easter.

How locals and visitors behave over any long weekend is covered in our long weekend marketing ideas for 2027, and our guide to marketing ideas for tourism operators looks at the relatives coming to stay. Easter brings three twists of its own.

• Publish Easter hours a fortnight out: Google Business Profile, website, social pages and the door. With Good Friday shut for most shops in both states and Easter Sunday restricted in NSW, travellers can't guess who's open, and an "open" listing on a locked door costs you a customer.
• Put a card where travellers sleep. A welcome card with a unique code in local motels, caravan parks and holiday rentals reaches people before they've picked a lunch spot, and it's easy to count.
• Plan for both waves on the highway. Towns along the coast road between the two capitals see both states' holiday traffic in turn, which is why advertising in Coffs Harbour over Easter is really a four-week job.

Putting your Easter offer in a room that's already celebrating

Paint brings the whole night to a local venue: hosts, easels, a soundtrack, a singalong everyone knows the words to and a few trivia questions while each layer dries. The crowd is mostly women, anywhere from their thirties to their nineties, usually booked in a group of friends, sisters, mums or workmates. Paint has welcomed 42,000+ guests. The biggest room so far, in Springfield, booked 151, and the big nights push past 100.

A couple of hypothetical ways an Easter-minded business could use that room:

• Picture a small-batch chocolatier tucking a tasting pack and a pre-order card with a QR code into every goodie bag in the fortnight before Good Friday, so guests opt in through the chocolatier's own offer. That's how product sampling and goodie bags work on a Paint night, always disclosed to guests as a paid partnership.
• Or a coastal cafe chasing the long weekend crowd: a Paint street team on the foreshore on Easter Saturday morning, handing grown-ups a voucher for coffee and a hot cross bun around the corner. Here's how street teams and town activations run.

Once Easter wraps, the next gifting date is six weeks away, so line up your Mother's Day marketing ideas for 2027 before the hot cross buns go stale.

Easter marketing questions, answered

When should a business start planning Easter 2027 marketing?

Start in early February. Good Friday falls on 26/03/2027, so promotion needs to be running from early March, and stock, partners and pre-order systems need to be locked in before then. Businesses in towns that pull visitors from both states should also plan a second wave for the NSW school holidays, which start on 12/04/2027.

Can my shop open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday?

It depends on your state and your type of shop. In both Queensland and NSW, Good Friday is closed for most retail. On Easter Sunday, Queensland non-exempt shops may be able to trade depending on their trading area, while NSW treats it as a restricted trading day unless your shop is exempt. Check the official rules for your state each year, and ask the regulator if you're unsure.

Does Easter marketing have to be about chocolate?

Not at all. Chocolate is the obvious hook, but Easter is also a travel weekend, a home projects weekend and a long lunch weekend. A hardware store, a day spa, a bookshop or a cellar door can build an Easter offer around four days off, visiting relatives and a little spare time, with no eggs required.

How do I keep my Easter marketing grown-up?

Show adults doing adult things: a long lunch with friends, a good bottle on the table, a gift for the host, a slow morning with the paper. Skip the cartoon bunnies unless they genuinely suit your brand. Plenty of Easter shoppers are buying for themselves, a partner or their own parents, so make your imagery look like the person paying.

Should a cafe add a public holiday surcharge over Easter?

That's a business decision, but if you do, be upfront about it. The ACCC says a cafe or restaurant that charges a surcharge on certain days must show the words "A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days]" on the menu, at least as prominently as the most prominent price. Customers should know before they order, never at the till.

Get your Easter plan moving before February ends

Easter 2027 arrives early and leaves in two waves, so the businesses that plan in February get the best of both. If your brand belongs in front of thousands of women in the weeks around Easter, send us your product, the towns you care about and your dates, and we'll sketch how a Paint night could carry it. Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects!

Start your Easter 2027 plan with Paint Juicy CONNECT

Have a look at the nights on sale in your state first.

Keep reading

• Long weekend marketing ideas for 2027: every QLD and NSW long weekend, and how to use it
  Long weekend marketing ideas for every 2027 QLD and NSW long weekend: dates, locals vs visitors, rosters and tactics. Plan your year now.
• Mother's Day marketing ideas for 2027: a playbook for local businesses
  Mother's Day marketing ideas for 2027: what Australians buy, ten ideas for local businesses and a countdown to Sunday 09/05/2027. Start planning.
• Marketing ideas for tourism operators: win over the locals who host the visitors
  Marketing ideas for tourism operators in regional QLD and NSW: turn locals into the ambassadors who bring visiting family to you. Read the playbook.