All the flavours of the Limestone Coast were on offer in Naracoorte on the weekend, as the town hosted two great gatherings.
The weekend kicked off with the Taste the Limestone Coast Festival, before rounding off with the Mini Jumbuk Naracoorte Cup.
Thousands of people flocked to the town for the weekend, with festival organiser Monique Crossling delighted with the turn out.
It was the first time the festival had been held since its three-year COVID-induced hiatus.
Mrs Crossling said the Naracoorte town squares were filled with people who made the most of the ideal warm summer weather.
“The weather was perfect, we had a really good turnout,” she said.
“It was fantastic … the crowd was wonderful, they were in early, lots of people stayed all day and we had a really good mix, there was a really nice vibe through the whole day,” Mrs Crossling said.
“It was just a really good atmosphere.”
Producers from throughout the region showcased a wide range of food and beverages.
“All of our food and beverage vendors were from the Limestone Coast, ranging from Beachport, Robe, Padthaway, Wrattonbully and the Coonawarra wine region,” she said.
“We had food from Millicent, Mount Gambier and Naracoorte, it was a pretty big cross section of the region.
“All the vendors were so rapt, most of them if they did not sell out they were close to selling out.”
Mrs Crossling said the event had been buoyed by support from the SA Tourism Commission, which had injected funding to assist with staging the festival.
“We were lucky enough to receive some funding from the SA Tourism Commission through the Regional Events Program that really helped get things started, it’s a pretty expensive event to put on,” she said.
“We have not had it for three years so we needed that boost to get us going again, hopefully we will have enough in the kitty to kick off next year’s event which everyone is already looking forward to.
“We absolutely had a lot of visitors, we saw a lot on the presale tickets from Victoria such as Warrnambool, Horsham and Melbourne.
“Through the gate there was a huge mix, we even had a few from New South Wales, New Zealand, Murray Bridge and all around Adelaide.
“There was quite a high proportion of interstate visitors, it’s good to see that money coming across from all the other states, the visitors came from far and wide.”
Mrs Crossling said organisers were looking forward to the festival returning as an annual event.
“We are hoping it will return as an annual event, using this year’s to kick it off again,” she said.
“There has been a call from the community to get it back up and running … so we will try to get it back up and going with the support of the Lions Club of Naracoorte who do all of the back breaking work.
“We work in conjunction with the Lions Club of Naracoorte and we cannot do it without them.”
