Council FESTIVAL calls last bites for Taste REVAMP

AFTER 31 years, Hobart City Council will no longer run the Taste of Tasmania festival.

Last year’s eight-day festival, which was the highlight of the Christmas-New Year season, was cancelled during the coronavirus crisis. The state government and Hobart City Council sought submissions from event organisers to run a new end-of-year food and drink celebration.

City of Hobart offered to provide $300,000 towards a modified event but no solution was found. The council spent $1.6m each year on the event.

It worked with stakeholders to do a report on the future of the festival and last night Cr Zelinda Sherlock said it was agreed Taste should transition out of council ownership.

“It has grown to such a high level event of state significance, it is no longer suitable for ratepayers to underwrite the festival,” Cr Sherlock said.

Initially the council was to discuss the festival’s future behind closed doors at a meeting on Monday night but Alderman Marti Zucco moved to have the discussion in public.

The council will instruct the chief executive to come up with a transition plan to divest the local authority of the festival.

Alderman Jeff Briscoe said it was a sad day “but I do agree with the reasons why we need to move on”.

“A few years ago the city looked at various proposals to transition out of it and we thought we could continue. If it’s viable for a private operator or government instrumentality or a small business group, if they approached us for sponsorship money we would do that. I do feel a sense of sadness to say goodbye to something that lasted 31 years,” he said.

Alderman Damon Thomas said the council should expect to see the decision on the front page of Tuesday’s paper and that the Lord Mayor should be prepared for huge outcry. “It’s just because it’s time,” he said.

Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the City of Hobart had delivered the event for more than three decades, developing it to a point where it had outgrown the city’s resources.

“The Taste of Tasmania generates huge economic and social benefits to Tasmania — not just Hobart — worth around $47m a year to the state,” Cr Reynolds said.

“Putting on an event of the size and scope of the Taste takes a large amount of resources and funding, which in turn rests on Hobart’s ratepayers.”

Premier Peter Gutwein said the decision gave the chance to refresh the festival concept.

“The government is committed to working with the council and other key stakeholders on an appropriate transition plan to a new event concept that activates the waterfront during the Christmas and New Year period,” he said.

A report is to be provided to the council with the plan to offload the festival by the end of the 2021-22 financial year.