Stalls all stocked up with the best of Tasmania

WET weather might have hampered preparations for the Taste of Tasmania but festival organisers are confident it will be all systems go this morning.

Jess Wall and Anne Bennett from Ashgrove Cheeses putting the finishing touches on their stall at the Taste of Tasmania Picture: Luke Bowden

WET weather on Saturday might have hampered preparations for the 27th Taste of Tasmania but festival organiser Damon Thomas is confident the event will be all systems go this morning.

Some last-minute testing on the flame breathing sculpture at the entreance to the Taste of Tasmania.

With 16.4mm of rain falling on Hobart on Boxing Day, set up was delayed but Alderman ­Thomas said organisers and stallholders worked double time yesterday to get the festival ready for the 100,000 visitors expected this week.

“The weather prevented getting items into the site from the street but the workers have caught up by getting up extra early [yesterday],” he said.

The site will be 98 per cent ready this morning, with ­remaining produce to come in time for opening at 11am.

Ashgrove Tasmanian Cheese Bar events manager Anne Bennett said she was bringing some of the finest products to the Taste this year.

“We have had half a tonne of cheese delivered by the first day and I have a back-up pallet so over the course of the week we would go through anything from half a tonne to a tonne of cheese,” she said. “This is our third year that we’ve participated so we’re ­really excited.”

A cheese and dip box will include five cheeses, two dips and a baguette, and there’s an antipasto gourmet box with four Tasmanian cheeses.

They will showcase lavender and creamy blue cheese, vine wrapped terrines, cured fish, dips, pickled cherries, ­Tasmanian brie and toasted hazelnuts. Ashgrove also has a Funky Cow Dessert Bar.

An empty PW1 shed is ready for opening day of the Taste of Tasmania.

The Taste will be cashless so patrons can use credit/debit cards or load a Taste card with cash. Ald Thomas said extensive testing showed the system, named Albert, would cope.

“But if it does go down, the contingency plan would be to revert back to cash if worst came to worst depending on how long the outage was.”