Food and wine to celebrate season

A FESTIVAL celebrating all the fantastic food and wine in the Heathcote region is set to return following a successful debut last year.

Known as the Heathcote Harvest Festival, the Saturday, 11 March event is organised by Heathcote Tourism and Development and group president Peter Young said it’s all about highlighting great produce in the region.

“It’s a celebration in recognition of the fact we’re starting our harvesting of the grapes,” he said.

“We’ll have live music on the Barrack Reserve oval, and we have a number of local wineries having stalls with beer and spirit providers as well as a variety of food stalls.

“This’ll be an afternoon thing from about 4pm to 8pm for everybody to get together and have a good time.

“Everyone had such a good time last year we’ve got even more providers this time.”

More than 20 stalls have been confirmed for the event featuring wineries like Silver Spoon Estate, Red Edge Wine, and Domaine Asmara.

Wine, beer and gin tastings will be on offer, as well as children’s entertainment.

A sausage sizzle will also be run by the Heathcote Country Women’s Association.

Last year’s inaugural festival was part of a campaign to increase Heathcote’s tourism draw.

The event saw 1500 attendees, which Mr Young said showcased the region as a strong events venue.

“I think Heathcote’s growing in its ability to deliver on a range of things,” he said. “We’re building on our capabilities to run events and host music events.

“Our community’s becoming attuned to the fact that Heathcote Tourism is putting on these events in the town.

“I think this festival became more successful than we were thinking. We thought we’d get 500 or 600 people and we got more than 1000 people. It was a great event for us.”

The Heathcote Harvest Festival will take place at Barrack Reserve on Saturday, 11 March. Visit heathcote.org.au for more information.