A NEW event featuring smoked meat will be staged in Swan Hill in May.
Smoke on the Water will tour towns along the Murray River border, including Albury-Wodonga, Echuca-Moama, Mildura-Wentworth and Swan Hill.
It will be in the rural city at Riverside Park on Sunday, May 5.
The event will feature an array of food and beverages, including smoked meats, representatives of craft breweries, local wineries, and artisan distilleries, competitions and barbecues, live cooking demonstrations, specific stalls, live entertainment, and children’s activities.
Swan Hill Council’s November meeting was told that organisers estimated patron numbers would be 2000.
Economic and community development manager Dennis Hovenden said the organisers proposed an event similar in status, size and sustainability as the Swan Hill Region Food and Wine Festival.
It believed that the demographic will be similar in its make up: locals, day-trippers and overnighters.
However, this event will be more family-focused, with a lean towards food accompanied by alcohol.
Organisers sought to maintain control and revenue from food and beverages to make the event viable, with entry prices of $25 per person and $50 per family. They also sought council’s support for the first three years to underwrite its continued commercial success, and in the form of free-of-charge venue hire, fencing, electricity, toilets, waste management and traffic management.
Council agreed to contribute $5000 towards the logistical costs wforith the staging of Smoke on the Water, but acknowledged it was unlikely that $5000 would be sufficient to cover all such expenses.
Mr Hovenden said the event would add to the calendar of events.
“As a part of a series of events, there is also the capacity to actively have the organisers promote Swan Hill as an events destination for tourists and visitors during traditionally a quiet period of the year, which will then further extend Swan Hill’s attraction capacity,” he said.
“Consideration should be given to a first-year commitment with a requirement for funding for the organisers to provide a detailed report on the outcomes of the event and that any future funding request should be submitted as a part of the council’s events support program.”
