Coffs Coast Food & Wine Festival to showcase local produce, growers, chefs
From a Roaring 20s party to an indulgence of burgers, the Coffs Coast is shooting big with a festival to present the district on a plate. See what’s planned.
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A supergroup of some of the biggest names in Australian pop will headline the inaugural Coffs Coast Food & Wine Festival.
Australian Rock Collective (featuring members of Powderfinger, Jet, Spiderbait and The Wrights) has been named as the musical pinnacle of the fledgling event billed as ‘10 days of decadence’.
The festival from June 4-13 is presented by Amplify Events, and owner Dave Mansfield said the cost of staging it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“The objective is to promote the restaurants, produce and producers from the region,” he said.
Asked if he was scared by the size of the venture, Mr Mansfield, who also runs the revamped Jetty Beach House (the old fishing club site), paused, gulped, and said “yeah, yeah I am”.
The event is going to be bolder and bigger than Ben Hur - with a jam-packed program including a classy 1920s themed party with all the trimmings.
“There’s a lot riding on it. The (bad) weather, it’s an inaugural event and there’s a lot to communicate,” Mr Mansfield said.
The festival was originally slated for November last year, then moved to March - “but a lot of restaurants were just starting to re-open their doors (after Covid)”, he said.
So the decision was made to punt it to June as local bars were struggling for staff due to the lack of backpackers on the Coffs Coast.
But Mr Mansfield believes it will be worth the wait, with the program ranging from the ritzy 1920s shindig through to a degustation experience of hamburgers.
Supported by a NSW government grant, the festival will offer dining experiences and foodie workshops.
Hosts include The Mermaid Beach House, Cafe Ophelia, Back Deck Dinners, The Hilltop Store, Levenvale Farm, Toni Swain, Woopi Brewing Co, Tish Faco, Stef’s Beachstone, Fiasco Ristorante, Ground Earth, Jetty Beach House, Bellingen Pasta, Bite Food Tours and more.
The festival will kick off with a black-tie Great Gatsby Gala at Jetty Beach House.
This exclusive party will include a canape dinner, Prohibition-era cocktails, and music by a Coffs Conservatorium string quartet and an eight-piece swing-band to have everybody on the dance floor (every ticket sold includes 1920s dance lessons so everyone can get down like Gatsby at the event).
As F. Scott Fitzgerald penned in the novel: “I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
Mr Mansfield said the experiences and foodie workshops will showcase collaborations between local farms and chefs, unique digital offerings, and private at-home experiences where the festival will come knocking at your door.
For every ticket purchased, two meals will be donated to someone in need through the local chapter of OzHarvest, a food rescue organisation.
The big bang Finale Weekend Celebration (June 11-12) at Jetty Beach House will see musicians who have won 36 ARIA awards between them take to the main stage.
“There will be an outdoor stage, food trucks in the carpark and pop-up cocktail bars,” Mr Mansfield said.
“It certainly won’t just be a highbrow festival, there will be something for all.
“It will be the first time anything like this has been tried across the region and we are looking to make it an annual event.”
Tickets on sale now at coffscoastfoodwine.com.au.
The sheer size and breadth of the festival has Mr Mansfield, who lives at Toormina, rolling the risk dice.
“But I’m very confident that any part of the program will see people having a lot of fun,” he said.
As they say, a turtle only moves forward when it sticks its neck out.
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