Bright n Sandy Food and Wine festival scrapped as council report proposes more, smaller events
The sellout 8000 strong crowd at Brighton’s Bright n Sandy Food and Wine Festival this year was the last. Councillors have voted unanimously to close it – but local businesses have been promised a financial lifeline.
Inner South
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The Bright n Sandy Food and Wine festival has come to an end after a rich and flavoursome 16-year history because its ties with Bayside vendors became too withered.
Following strong debate at a council meeting last night, it was unanimously decided the festival should be axed.
But in welcome news for Bayside traders, council pledged to allocate $90,000 in its 2020/21 budget to help businesses recover from the effects of COVID-19.
The decision to can the festival comes after Bayside traders turned their back on the event, mainly due to high costs.
Deputy Mayor Rob Grinter said if the festival was a patient, it would be on life support.
“And we’re turning up with bandaids to fix it, it is a shocker,” he said.
“Six people put in submissions, and all of them support the killing off of this event.
“Anyone I have spoken to in the streets have said they don’t want this.”
Cr Grinter said there were just 12 Bayside vendors at the 2020 festival.
“And even one of the seasoned traders who was there questioned whether they were Bayside businesses or not,” he said.
The contract for the event, which is held annually at Green Point in Brighton and is one of Bayside’s two major yearly events, specifies the festival supports local food and beverage businesses.
But only 23 per cent of exhibitors in 2020 were from the municipality, down from 32 per cent in 2019.
The council identified a number of issues holding Bayside businesses back from taking part in the popular festival, which attracted a sellout crowd of 8000 people in 2020.
Permits to trade off site, hiring mobile infrastructure and not generating a return on investment because of double time for staff on a Sunday were the main concerns of local businesses.
Instead of hosting two major events in Brighton each year, council will create a set of smaller community ones within different localities throughout Bayside.
They would be owned, branded and managed by the council and would focus on attracting families, local businesses and performers.
The current allocation of $155,000 for the Bright n Sandy festival would be reallocated to fund the new program of events.
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“Staff anticipate that the reallocation of the $155,000 for the 2021 Festival and working in partnership with other community organisations including groups such as Rotary, community centres, sports clubs and other providers, council would be able to host one or more events in each Bayside suburb (including Brighton, the current locale of the Festival) during the November 2020 – April 2021 event season,” the plan reads.
The City of Bayside also hopes to make a profit from event providers by letting them use Green Point for a food, beverage and music event.