Record crowd swamps Loch Festival vendors

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Record crowd swamps Loch Festival vendors

It wasn’t all wine at the festival. Korumburra’s Elijah and Steph Sakala with son Jeremiah stopped in for a taste test at the Soleil stand with Maria Sulistri.

IT took three months in the planning to stage the 12th annual Loch Valley Wine and Food Festival and even that was not enough.

Perfect weather attracted an estimated 5000 to the railway siding area where vendors were lined up to receive them.

The hardest thing about the day for visitors was trying to find a nearby car park.

Some gave up looking after cruising the streets for half an hour searching for a space, while others parked more than two kilometres away and trekked down the road.

Most prominent local vineyards took the opportunity to showcase their wines including Blue Gables, the Gippsland Wine Company, Red Door Estate, The Dirty Three and Bass River.

Glenmaggie wine-maker, Tony Dawkins, lamented that his son had reneged on his promise to come and help leaving him swamped and alone and just dreaming of a toilet break opportunity.

“You couldn’t duck back to my place and grab some more wine,” he joked as his stocks quickly disappeared.

His latest release sparkling pinot noir was one of the hits of the festival, but you had to get in early to have a taste, let alone buy a bottle.

The crowd smashed all previous records and has assured the festival of a bright future if they can find a solution to the car parking nightmare.

Organiser, Mark Heath, was overwhelmed by the response to a festival which puts big dollars into the local community each year.

His Gippsland Wine Company stand was also one of the busiest on the day, it was fortunate his helpers did turn up.

As for the food vendors, most ran out before the bell struck 2pm.

Those who did manage to find a car park, taste a few different wines and get some food would have left promising to come back next year.

As a first time visitors I will be one of them, and this time I’ll go early. –PETER CHAPMAN

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by on Jun 12 2019. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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