Major festival planned for 2024
A PROPOSAL for a new Toowoomba festival that could attract thousands of residents to the region next year has been advanced to the next stage.
The Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce and Dine Darling Downs’ Kristen O’Brien have revealed further details about Autumn Feast, which the two organisations hope will run over nine days in April 2024.
Sponsorship has now been sought, including from the Toowoomba Regional Council.
The festival is being touted as a new tourism drawcard for the region during a traditionally quiet season, focusing on local art, music and food in Toowoomba and surrounding communities.
It would act as a counterpart to the famous Carnival of Flowers, which dominates the spring tourism schedule.
The Garden City has not had a major autumn event since Easter Fest, which wrapped up several years ago.
Chamber CEO Todd Rohl said local vendors deserved a new event to match the economic and cultural prosperity of the Carnival of Flowers.
“There’s always been a push to have another event outside of carnival,” he said.
“There was a thing called Green Week in Autumn in the 1980s, then there was Easter Fest, so what we’re trying to do is create that bookend to the spring carnival and base it around food, art and music. We have made it clear we want to showcase local talent, so that’s what our mission statement is.”
Key events floated for the festival could include an art show, signature autumn dishes at local restaurants, gigs at various venues, a degustation dinner at Crows Nest and country pubs tours.
Mr Rohl said he wanted 40 per cent of attendees to be from outside the region, with local businesses and tourism operators seeing a 20 per cent increase in sales compared with the previous year.
“The big dream is it will bring as many economic benefits as carnival, so this is the starting point,” he said.
“There’s no doubt in my mind if we can make it diverse it will evolve into something we can’t dream of now.
“If we can get the approval (for sponsorship) ASAP, we will get someone on board to drive this to make sure it succeeds.
“This is why it’s important we get this sponsorship up as soon as possible.”
Ms O’Brien said Autumn Feast was about showcasing local talents.
“Our robust farming sector and cafe and restaurant scene make this the perfect place to sample a true paddock-to-plate experience and Autumn Feast will give us the opportunity to really showcase that to the rest of Australia, and the world for that matter,” she said.