Weekend choc full of fun
SYDNEY’S sweetest festival celebrating all things chocolate is heading west. The Smooth Festival of Chocolate will be held at Sydney Showground after organisers decided to move it from its previous home at The Rocks.
Parramatta
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SYDNEY’S sweetest festival celebrating all things chocolate is heading west.
The Smooth Festival of Chocolate will be held at Sydney Showground on September 1 and 2, after organisers decided to move it from its previous home at The Rocks.
Delivered in partnership with easy-listening radio station Smooth FM, the annual event attracts hundreds of thousands of people and showcases the latest trends, finest ingredients and emerging talent behind all kinds of chocolate and desserts.
NOVA Entertainment’s Sydney commercial director Luke Minto said the event, now in its fifth year, had always attracted crowds from the western suburbs and moving it to Sydney Olympic Park would allow room to grow.
“People’s love of food just continues to grow,” Minto said.
The new location has brought with it a renewed focus on providing activities and entertainment for all ages, from children’s rides and cooking classes through to a garden bar and dessert masterclasses.
“It really does cater for the foodie and the family,” Minto said.
Characters from popular children’s television show PAW Patrol as well as Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and favourites from Sesame Street will make special appearances at the festival while Smurfs Brainy and Smurfette will put their cooking skill sto the test when they join in some live demonstrations.
This year’s two-day extravaganza will include the Callebaut Sydney Royal Chocolate Show, an event never held in public before, where the best chocolatiers and pastry chefs from across the country put their skills to the test.
A chocolate sculpture challenge including five professionals and five students will also be held on the Saturday, with renowned chocolatier Dean Gibson judging the designs.
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The popular Callebaut Test Kitchen will be back, with chefs including Adriano Zumbo, Kirsten Tibballs, and the team behind N2 Extreme Gelato.
Minto joked that his favourite part of the event was seeing Smooth radio host Cameron Daddo in the test kitchen.
“You never know what you’re going to get and you always come away learning something,” Daddo said.
This year, entry to the festival will be ticketed and visitors have been encouraged to prepurchase tickets online.
Minto said the ticket price partly reflected the cost of hiring Sydney Showground, and would also allow event organisers to cater for the size of its crowds.
“We had no idea how many people were going to turn up on day one of the previous event,” he said.
“This time we have an indication from how many people are coming already - we can then cater for them already.”
Tickets range from $23 for adults to $55 for a family of five, and Minto said the team had worked “really, really hard” to increase the event’s offerings this year, including eight new attractions and more free samples.
“... We’ve kept the cost as minimal as possible, he said.
Some of the proceeds from ticket sales will also be donated to food rescue charity OzHarvest.
For more details and to buy tickets visit the website.