Norwood Food and Wine Festival revived for AFL’s 2024 Gather Round

A rowdy wine festival will roar back to life when the AFL’s Gather Road comes to town next year, as it’s revealed one popular SA region will miss next year’s party.

The controversial Norwood Food and Wine Festival will be resurrected as part of next year’s AFL Gather Round festivities to coincide with its Sunday match on The Parade.

Two matches will be held at Mount Barker and two at Norwood Oval as part of the four-day festival of footy from April 4 to 7.

However, plans for a match to be held in the Barossa have been pushed to 2025, to allow time for improved infrastructure to be planned and built, the Premier Peter Malinauskas said.

The Norwood Food and Wine Festival ran for almost 20 years before it was axed in 2012, after concerns from traders about public drunkenness, road closures and crowd control affecting business.

SEE THE FULL 2024 GATHER ROUND FIXTURE HERE

Mr Malinauskas expected the Sunday game between St Kilda and Richmond at Norwood Oval to sell out straight away and said that was part of the reason for the return of The Parade’s food and wine event.

“We want to showcase everything that makes our state great, in terms of the culinary experience, and what we have to offer around premium wines,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Norwood, Payneham and St Peters council will contribute $300,000 to jointly stage the food and wine festival.

Mayor Robert Bria said the event would be “bigger and better” and that the hospitality spend in Norwood alone during this year’s Gather Round was more than $2.2m.

Also returning for Gather Round will be last year’s family-friendly free Footy Festival in Elder Park.

The AFL’s new chief executive Andrew Dillon and the Premier announced the fixtures at Norwood Oval on Sunday.

Mr Malinauskas said that next year’s Gather Round would include “a few tweaks” including the Crows and Power playing at Adelaide Oval on separate days, the Thursday and Friday.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas outside Prospect Oval launching 2024’s Gather Round fixture. Picture: Matt Loxton

Instead of again featuring both SA teams, next year’s Saturday double-header at Adelaide Oval will be Carlton v Fremantle followed by Geelong v Western Bulldogs.

“Both Andrew (Dillon, AFL chief executive) and I are committed to having a game in the Barossa in 2025,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“We do need to invest in infrastructure to bring it up to the standard that is consummate with a professional game. In 2025 we will have that in place.”

Mt Barker acting mayor Simon Westwood said the addition of a second game there was a “golden opportunity” to bolster tourism in the region.

All nine games for the inaugural Gather Round sold out, with 260,000 fans attending and more than 40,000 visitors from interstate, generating an economic benefit for the state of more than $80m.

Mr Malinauskas said South Australians could take credit for the “overwhelming success”.

“They backed it in – they showed up in extraordinary numbers, and made the event really quite special and unique, something that the rest of the country now wants to experience.”

While he would not be drawn on numbers, Mr Malinauskas expected there would be an increase in attendances from interstate next year.

Sophie Walker, Josh DeGaris, Stephanie DeGaris and Sonja Jankovic enjoy the last Norwood Food and Wine Festival in 2012.

“We are set to see an ever-increasing number of people coming across from the eastern states, as well as WA,” he said.

“In anticipation of the growth, a lot of work has been put into the fixture, to get the balance right, to make sure we can accommodate as many fans as possible, but doing it in a way that is unique.”

The league is poised to stick with the same grounds for 2024: Adelaide Oval, Norwood and Mount Barker with the Barossa Valley set to miss on hosting a game.

The Advertiser revealed yesterday the two South Australian clubs had been given prime time slots for the second footy festival, which is scheduled for round 4, starting April 4.

The Crows will open next year’s Gather Round against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night, before Port Adelaide plays Essendon in another blockbuster at the ground under lights on Friday.

It comes after Adelaide played the first match during the inaugural Gather Round this year when it took on Carlton, booting the opening six goals on its way to a 56-point victory.