Festival savouring the sweet taste of success

MORE than 60,000 revellers and gourmands attended this year’s Taste of Summer festival in the second year of its new format.

Taste of Summer chair Jarrod Nation, who heads up the consortium Pinpoint Group that took over the event from the City of Hobart in 2021, said the figures “exceeded expectations”.

About 60 per cent of ticket sales were to patrons from interstate, with 40 per cent from Tasmania and half of those from Greater Hobart.

The strong interstate component “validates” the support given to the event by the state government and the City of Hobart, Mr Nation said.

“The interstate component makes the economics work,” he said.

Having a ticketed event – the festival’s predecessor, Taste of Tasmania, first held in 1988, was free – did lead to less people on site at any given time but this was “better from a flow point of view,” Mr Nation said.

“I think the model has been validated this year,” he said.

Mr Nation said there were about 3500 to 4000 people on site at any given time. Taste of Summer was allowed a maximum of 8000 under its permit.

“We like the fact the ticket price puts a lid on numbers, it’s much more comfortable for patrons,” he said.

Mr Nation said the Taste of Summer would continue to evolve under Pinpoint.

“We have a huge basket of ideas (for future editions) which will be discussed at length in a couple of weeks,” he said.

Mr Nation said starting a night earlier – on December 27 – and the format of the New Year’s Eve party were both successes from Pinpoint’s perspective.

Vanessa Bagot, of Barring-wood Estate, said this year’s festival was her 10th and she hailed it as the “best”.

“The flow was great, people could find you, New Year’s Eve was particularly good,” she said.

“We’ve had some diabolical New Year’s Eves with low patron numbers.”

She especially liked there being only one stage for entertainment, which allowed for quieter zones within the festival where people could converse unimpeded.

“One place of focus for the entertainment put a better emphasis on the food, wine and spirits,” Ms Bagot said.