ELEVEN venues across the region reached capacity last weekend as locals and visitors enjoyed the best of this year’s modified Riverland Wine and Food Festival.
The annual event, which offers the opportunity to showcase the region’s food, wine and produce and bring the community together, steered away from its original concept on the Berri river front this year due to COVID.
Riverland Wine and Food Festival event organiser Kelly Wagner said planning this year’s event was “challenging”.
“We (the committee) had multiple challenges trying to plan Wine and Food because up until five weeks ago we were unsure about what would be possible,” she said.
“Our initial planning had always been trying to go with the Berri river front format, which has obviously been happening in the past few years, but with COVID, the restrictions and everything going pear-shaped in Victoria, we knew we had to plan something different.
“So, we decided on the format we did – a festival hosted across multiple venues across the region – because we were committed to making the event happen one way or another.”
Ms Wagner said she and the committee received positive feedback from guests and hosts.
“We ended up with 11 different venues offering events over the weekend and 14 different Riverland providers on board,” she said.
“Most of the positive feedback we received from the guests were that people appreciated the relaxed vibe, it was easy to get food and drinks and people actually enjoyed visiting the venues and get the true Riverland experience.
“We also had feedback that there was a great spread of events across the region – a little something close for everyone in most towns – and it attracted lots of intrastate and interstate visitors.”
Ms Wagner said due to the positive feedback, this year’s format is something that may continue in the future.
“We’ve taken on board all the positive feedback we’ve received and decided to run surveys to see what style people prefer,” she said.
“Based on the response so far and how successful the weekend was – as the venues reached capacity – it does look promising that we are going to consider this format again in the future.
“It doesn’t mean that we will be cancelling out the traditional river-front event, but we may offer this as well.”
Ms Wagner said she hopes next year’s event is “bigger and better”.
“We only had five weeks to plan this year’s event and there were things like transport and logistics that we couldn’t work out in time and were unable to offer,” she said.
“Next year we hope with the more time we are given we can add more to the festival.
“We are hoping by then that everything is different and visitors from Victoria and other states with their borders shut are ready to travel and join us.”