Tweed Artisan Food Festival: Celebration of local produce
The sixth Tweed Artisan Food Festival goes ‘beyond food’ and is about connecting people to place. Find out what’s on over the next ten days.
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The Tweed Artisan Festival launched on Friday, October 21, and it’s got something for everybody.
Whether it’s sipping on a crafty cocktail, soaking in the aromas of local produce, cooking masterclasses with local chefs or even a Mexican cantina banquet.
The festival ran its second launch at the Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Centre, on Thursday, honouring the first nations people.
Storyteller for the festival Kylie Mitchell-Smith said the festival goes beyond food and was about connecting people to place.
“It’s a celebration of everything we grow here, all the makers, all the shakers and more importantly, the Indigenous land that we stand on.
“We start at Minjungbal Cultural Centre, and then we just work our way through the farms to the tables,” she said.
Ms Mitchell-Smith also said she hopes the festival can be sustained as it is.
“There are so many great venues every year, so we support them and sustain the festival, not get any bigger, not do anything too crazy but just keep it authentic.”
Michael Simmons from Tweed Escapes said the region is one of abundance, with the festival providing an opportunity for creators and chefs to get together and put their best foot forward in presenting diversity.
“I think it’s really important to have events like this that demonstrate the region’s sustainability and the diversity of the available foods to the traditional owners that were here before European settlement.
“There is a real opportunity now with the diversification away from the traditional European crops such as sugarcane towards indigenous crops such as macadamia nuts and native finger limes.”
Maureen Logan said the festival brings everybody together and brings happiness where the community sits around the fire and tells their yarns.
“It’s always good to see families … everybody in the Aboriginal community is family, they always call their elders aunt or uncle, it doesn’t matter if you don’t even know them,” she said.
Event manager Peita Gardiman said the Tweed Artisan Food Festival brings together all the produce and the producers of this region to the public.
“It showcases what we’ve got in our region, we’ve got so much talent, it’s such a food bowl, it brings it to the public to be able to enjoy.”
The festival runs from Friday October 21 to Sunday October 30.
Check out all the events on the Tweed Artisan Collective website.
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