Lara festival serves up bumper attendance

Alex de Vos
Organisers have launched an early appeal for local producers to showcase their products at next year’s Lara Food and Wine Festival after a bumper event last weekend.
Festival spokesperson Tara Iacovella was over the moon with Sunday’s event, which attracted 8000 patrons, up 60 per cent on the previous year.
“We were really pleased with the turnout – it was a fantastic day,” Ms Iacovella said.
She noted the high calibre of local produce on display and celebrity hosts Catriona Rowntree and Gabriel Gate as highlights of the second annual event.
“The way Catriona interacted with the audience was really great. She was very bubbly, charismatic and entertaining,” she said.
“The extra virgin olive oil taste challenge was also very popular – thousands of people agreed that Australian olive oil tastes fresher than the imported stuff.”
Ms Iacovella said leading Geelong chef Matt Dempsey and French cuisine master Gabriel Gate wowed audiences with an educational yet entertaining demonstration combining local flavours with classic Italian staples.
“They worked really well together and made some delicious food which the audience sampled,” Ms Iacovella said.
She urged local producers to participate in next year’s event.
“We want to build the event and really showcase the wonderful food and wine produced in the region, so we’re putting the challenge out to local producers to get on board.”
The Lara Food and Wine Festival runs on the fourth Sunday in March.
The Independent is a festival sponsor.