Stanhope kick-started festival season for the region on Sunday when Birdwood Ave came to life with hundreds of people turning out for the second annual Celebrate Stanhope Food and Wine Festival.
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Next weekend, the focus will turn to Tongala for its annual town-wide garage sale (on Saturday, October 7) and — the following day — its Eats and Beats festival on the lawns of the Mangan St soundshell.
A week later, the Rochester community will look back on 12 months of agonising recovery when it is given respite from dealing with insurance companies, local, state and federal government support organisations and all the associated challenges of the 2022 October flood disaster.
The Saturday, October 14 music festival, titled Rochella, gained Music Victoria support and will include performances from award-winning Victorian bands Cash Savage and the Last Drinks and The Black Sorrows.
Bones and Jones from Geelong will also perform, along with dance-pop collective Empress, Echuca band Stumbling North, family-friendly act The Burnt Sausages and Australian Idol artist Anya Alchemy.
District students will take a star turn with the premiere of a song they wrote in collaboration with Golden Guitar winner Josh Arnold for his Small Town Culture music project.
Rochella has been organised by Rochester Community House, with support from sporting clubs and committees of the region.
The Stanhope event involved a variety of community groups, including the 10-year-old Men’s Shed — one of the strongest of its kind in the region, with a 40-strong membership.
The group meets three days a week, and on hand to explain the products on sale were Alvin McConnell, 79, and his cousin John Porch.
Among the organising committee at the event were Glenda Cowie, Christine Dicketts and Des Crichton, who had been leading figures in the past two years of events at Stanhope.
Jenni and Ian Everett, a husband and wife promoting the Ned Kelly Red and Callipari Wines brand, were also on hand to explain the third-generation family’s Mildura product.
The fresh red spritzer, which is one variety of the Ned Kelly Red brand, is a lemon and orange juice-infused drink named in honour of the bushranger’s father, Red.
Balloon animals were again extremely popular — dogs, dinosaurs, turtles, flowers, rabbits and the obligatory balloon swords scattered everywhere.
Stanhope pool had a stand at the event, the committee again pleased by the fact it will be a free swimming season again in 2023-24 (starting on the last weekend in November).
The plan is for the committee to again have celebrations to match its pizza nights and inflatable-with-barbecue events of last season.
Nine or 10 volunteers from Friends of Gargarro Botanic Garden were on hand to make Devonshire teas while also selling plants.
The funds will be used to offset the cost of the community car and bolster the coffers of the Friends of Gargarro Botanic Garden.
Stay tuned for more details of the other October festivals in coming weeks.