Taste of Summer Festival expects record numbers for 2023 opening night
Stallholders are firing up their grills as a record number of patrons are expected to get a Taste of Summer on opening night.
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Vendors have fired up their grills waiting for a record number of patrons to get a Taste of Summer on opening night.
Taste of Summer organisers are expecting to see more than 6000 locals and tourists taste fresh produce from 90 stallholders at PW1 on Wednesday.
7K Distillery sales and events manager Alexander Chaplain said an extra 15 people were hired on a casual basis to work at the popular festival.
“The slushie machine was emptied 10 times and we were run off our feet on opening night last year so we’re looking forward to achieving the same kind of numbers,” he said.
“We’ve got frozen espresso martinis, we’ve got frozen raspberries and gimlets obviously made with Tasmanian raspberries. We couldn’t ask for better weather.”
Kiltro Street Food’s Carolina Montero said they have ordered extra produce, including calamari and scallops, for the masses.
“This summer has a lot of things for us to celebrate, especially local produce,” she said.
“This is our third Taste of Summer and we keep coming because of the music, the people, to get together in summer to enjoy food and celebrate nice things.
“We even ordered extra food to feed everyone.”
This year’s festival will be running for nine days compared to seven days in previous years.
“We’ve been talking to stall holders and patrons over the last couple of years and what was very clear in all that is they wanted more,” Taste’s Jarrod Nation said.
“The dates were in our favour this year where we could run for nine days, have a short break in between and then another three days which should be huge from an attendance point of view.”
Mr Nation said half of the tickets sold are to tourists.
“Looking at TasPorts, there’s about 14 cruise ships over the next nine days which will add a nice little boost for numbers,” he said.
“But for the last three days of the event this year, we’re hoping that locals come out of their lounge rooms so this year because we’ve extended Taste’s period, we’re expecting locals to come out in droves.”
Events Minister Nic Street said the festival is important for local producers and suppliers.
“We know that we need these festivals in Tasmania at all times of the year to attract interstate and overseas visitors and the Taste plays a really important role in that,” he said.
Tickets are available to purchase on the Taste of Summer website or at the door, starting from $11.50, with children under the age of 16 able to get in for free.
The festival runs from Wednesday, December 27 until Saturday, January 6. It will be closed from Tuesday, January 2 and Wednesday, January 3.
Doors open from 12pm until 10.30pm on Thursday until Saturday.
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