Garlic hit
THOUSANDS gathered together to enjoy gastronomic delights and a family fun fare at the Meeniyan Garlic Festival on Saturday.
Almost 7000 people descended on Meeniyan Recreation Reserve for the festival’s second year, which boasted celebrity cooking demonstrations, local producers and market stalls to get all tongues salivating.
Over 30 percent of patrons travelled down from Melbourne for the event while another 35 percent ventured from outside of South Gippsland, providing a massive boost to the local economy.
Festival chair David Jones said the day drew a fantastic crowd and spirits were high at the fast-growing event.
“Naturally we love to create for our local crowd, but we also market widely to attract newcomers to showcase our amazing ‘land of plenty’,” Mr Jones said.
“Our beaches are well known and with the growing group of quality food producers, we are proud to promote our position as a major food bowl and diverse tourism destination. It is great to see that surrounding towns have collaborated and enjoyed the economic flow on from the festival as well. We also used social media in new ways this year which reached different demographics.”
The event saw Pastuso Restaurant’s Alejandro Saravia and CODA Restaurant’s Adam D’Sylva put on cooking demonstrations for the large crowd, while local musical entertainment provided food for ears across the day.
Local food companies also banded together to create original products for the event.
Prom Country Ice Creamery made a limited edition garlic and salted caramel ice cream while Gippsland Jersey mastered its garlic milkshake recipe for punters.
Loch Distillery also came to the table with its smoked garlic beer.
Children were spoilt for choice with the addition of balloon soccer proving to be a huge hit.
Age old favourites like billycart races, sack races and treasure hunts were popular while both young and old joined in the community project of making garlic lanterns under the guidance of international festival artist Amanda Diamond.
Visitors took advantage of the free parking and shuttle buses at Stony Creek and spilled into the main street where the Market Square housed an arts and craft precinct.
“As with all community events, they would not exist without the amazing support of local volunteers and generous sponsorship from local businesses,” Mr Jones said.
“We are grateful to all those who helped make Saturday a success.”
Garlic growers: from left, Gerdavale Garlic’s Denham Noom, Bas Swart and Keira Noom had a fantastic day at the Meeniyan Garlic Festival.
Short URL: https://thestar.com.au/?p=24095
Posted by Tayla Kershaw
on Feb 20 2018. Filed under Featured, News.
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