Cairns Italian Festival: La Festa – Food and Wine at Fogarty Park reaction and pictures
Festival goers of the La-Festa Food and Wine event dish up their verdict and reveal their favourites. SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY
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AN ITALIAN festival attracted thousands of people to a Cairns park at the weekend, but the food was the star of the show.
La Festa – Food and Wine Day at Fogarty Park proved so popular six out of the 20 food stalls sold out by about 6pm.
Vanessa Muzzone, from Rome, stopped into the festival before her flight back home on Monday and said the arancini was a highlight.
“We have been to a few Italian festivals around but this is the best one,” she said.
“Maybe it’s because the others were smaller and didn’t have good food but the food was very nice here.”
Ms Muzzone said the festival even made her feel like she was in Italy.
Vanessa Gandini from Cairns said her daughter loved the ravioli.
“I love that they had gluten free food, the music is great,” she said.
But the atmosphere of the family fun day impressed Ms Gandini so much she wanted more.
“They should do it annually,” she said.
Among the dishes, that even Nonna would approve of, many headed for the aroma of wood-fired pizza.
“It’s so nice to be able to get out and do these things again to enjoy an authentic family fun day,” Kelsey Quaife from Cairns said.
“It’s been beautiful, lots of options and great drinks.”
The day had 20 different stalls representing restaurants from Cairns to Port Douglas.
Vitalia’s co-owner Antonio Lo Conte said the team didn’t expect the festival to be so busy, but was glad they had prepared 1000 piadinas (Italian flatbread).
“It’s just amazing, that’s what Cairns needs at the moment,” he said.
Mr Lo Conte was happy to see all the local restaurants band together.
Some restaurants from down south even made their way to the festival.
Michelle Di Pietro from Abruzzo Lab in Melbourne said the stall sold out of arrosticini by 6pm.
“It was very well organised. The committee helped us with everything from getting here, to setting up,” she said.
“We look forward to coming back next year.”
Festival committee president Steve Cordenos said organisers had to start advising people, who were waiting in a line to enter the park on Saturday evening, that some food stalls had already run out.
“We thought it would be good but this has just superseded our expectations, the way we presented Fogarty Park, the way we presented our event was fantastic,” he said.
“I think by this years success the general public would want another one, we’d probably have to do it over two days because of the amount of support this year.”
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Originally published as Cairns Italian Festival: La Festa – Food and Wine at Fogarty Park reaction and pictures
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