It may only be 10 years old, but coordinator Jenny Logie says the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival has well and truly come of age.
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Starting out with a crowd of 300 at its first instalment in 2007, the festival’s popularity has grown exponentially to now be attracting 3500 people from across the state each year.
With the event set to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Saturday, Mrs Logie says organisers are content to consolidate the formula which has seen the festival collect multiple event of the year awards at the Great Eastern Drivers.
“As far as the numbers of people coming we've grown every year, as far as the number of food and wine stalls I don't think we intend to grow it any more,” Mrs Logie said.
“What we're trying to do each year is increase the quality and make it interesting and different.
“At this stage we have about 3500 people, most of them come and stay for the day and that leaves it still with a really nice atmosphere, there’s plenty of room for people to sit on the grass picnic-style and just listen to the music.”
The festival will offer a smorgasbord of Tasmanian artists, with guitarist Pete Cornelius to play alongside nine-piece contemporary funk band Funktional and new East Coast resident Jane Germain to mesh together a collection of genres.
Robbie Hamilton will perform a marquee slot in the morning, while singer-songwriter Ange Boxall will play tracks from her latest offering Into the Wild, which recently debuted at #11 on the ARIA charts.
Other entertainment confirmed for the day will include a presentation from Gardening Australia’s Tino Carnevale, and cooking masterclasses from Tasmanian chefs David Quon, Terry Fidler and Silvana Taurian.
Mrs Logie said the festival would again showcase the best seafood the state had to offer, as well as more than a dozen wine, beer, vodka and gin stalls.
“It's very much about the East Coast, we try to be specific to that and it's about showcasing the best of what we've got here.
“We also have a vintage surfboard exhibition which is a big drawcard here... it doesn't happen like this anywhere else so it’s a very East Coast sort of flavour.”
The festival will run from 10.30am to 5.30pm at Lions Park in Bicheno on Saturday.
For morte information visit www.bichenofestivals.com.au