After more than 90 events spanning five days, the 70th Barossa Vintage Festival has been declared an overwhelming success by event organisers.
With some of the largest crowd numbers ever recorded and many events sold out, it’s wonderful to see the festival still going strong after 70 years.
Minister for Tourism, Leon Bignell praised the Festival and acknowledged it as the flagship event for the Barossa, while at the same time declaring it as the largest regional event in South Australia.
“We expect the Barossa region to receive $8-10 million worth of economic benefit from the Festival. That’s an astounding result for a regional event which first began as a small community celebration.”
Chris Pfeiffer, Tourism Barossa Chair said this year’s Festival was one of the best he had ever attended. “The build-up to this Vintage Festival was embraced by the whole community, making it one of the best festivals,” said Chris.
“The board are grateful for the huge commitment of Festival Director, Andrew Dundon and the team, which resulted in a Festival that saw so many people from all over the world join us to celebrate our 2017 vintage.
“While the Chook Shed Social Club and Feast, Folk & Fossick and Barossa Wine Chapters Auction and Lunch were three highlights, every event on the program had its own story and successfully show-cased the food, wine and culture of the Barossa.
“I know those who visited for the Festival, will be back after such a positive and inspiring experience.”
Festival Chair, Cathy Wills said she felt so very proud of the Barossa community this week.
“The success of the Festival was the result of extraordinary efforts from so many people, and we are grateful to everyone for their enthusiastic investment,” she said.
“We continue to receive amazing feedback from visitors who commented about the friendliness and sense of community that they experienced throughout the week.
“The Festival was made possible by significant support from our sponsors, and all who donated towards the raffle and other areas – our sincere thanks go to all of them. I would like to thank the team at Tourism Barossa for their fantastic efforts in producing this year’s Festival, and in particular to Festival Director Andrew Dundon, whose creativity, enthusiasm and community engagement have produced another outstanding festival.”
According to Festival Director, Andrew Dundon, who also headed up the 2015 Festival, this year’s Festival could not have been a bigger success, despite not having had time to fully reflect on the entire Festival yet.
“There is no doubt this year’s Festival is one of the biggest yet, judging by crowd numbers and the amount of people out and about in the region,” he said.
“The success of the Festival is testament to the community and their love for the biennial event. Without their support and involvement, the Festival would not be the success it is today.”
Dundon said early feedback from event convenors and Festival goers was extremely positive, in particular, the wrap event at Lyndoch yesterday was hugely successful with thousands converging on the Lyndoch Village Green.
“From early on we had dubbed Feast, Folk & Fossick the official wrap party of the whole Festival and it was just that. Crowd numbers were well beyond what we had anticipated and the vibe was incredible, which again was testament to the hard work of the local community and volunteers.”
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