DIMBOOLA Food Festival is set to become an annual fixture after the inaugural event smashed organisers’ expectations.
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The three-day event ran from August 19 to 21 and the estimate of crowd numbers was higher than hoped for.
Visitors and residents were offered the chance to meet producers and enjoy cooking demonstrations.
The festival’s marquee event, Off The Grid River Dining, was a six-course dinner of regional produce.
Co-ordinator Mary Clarke said it looked like festival the had drawn in enough people to justify putting it on every year.
“It was really, really successful,” she said.
“Nobody has had a chance to review all the numbers yet.
“But we estimated that a lot of people came through- more than we expected.”
Ms Clarke said the ticketed events and cooking demonstrations had been particularly popular, as well as the marquee dinner.
“It was great to see the main street of Dimboola full of people from the nearby area, from Horsham and from Melbourne as well,” she said.
“The was also a lot of people visiting the shops in Dimboola, which was one of the reasons we put on the festival: to help businesses.”
Ms Clarke said organisers had felt trepidation ahead of the festival as it was the first of its kind, but now it seemed that the plans to make it an annual event would go ahead.
“I’ve spoken to the stallholders to get some feedback. The answer was unanimous: they all want to come back next year,” she said.