How sweet it is: Nanneella sisters Phillipa and Adelaide Gibson get a close-up look at the offerings of Deniliquin stall holder Sweet Spot Cakery. The five-year-old business is owned by Paige Beriman, who enlisted the support of children Addyson and Elijah for the Eats & Beats festival. Their 100 donuts and 72 cupcakes were almost gone by halfway through the day after they were a last-minute call-up for a cupcake operator that became unavailable on Friday.
Organisers of Tongala’s second Eats and Beats Festival have declared the event will become an annual fixture on the dairy farming town’s entertainment calendar.
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Operating pretty much under its own steam this year, with generous support from Campaspe Shire Council, Tongala Community Bank and Greenhams, the celebration of food and music attracted 700 people through the gates.
Tongala Development Group’s Amber Townsend and Kellie Brennan were two key components of the small — but extremely effective — volunteer committee that put the event together.
They were rightly proud of the final result, assisted by perfect spring weather, and were moved enough to suggest the pencil used to lock the date into the Tongala event calendar would be exchanged for a thick marker.
“People said they wanted the event back and they voted with their feet. Our aim is to work to make this an annual event,” Mrs Townsend said.
Not everything went to plan in the lead-up to the event — unavailability of a key stall holder and a last-minute decision to add further to a jam-packed children’s entertainment program presenting a slight challenge.
Opening act: Echuca-Moama country music artist Madi Colville-Walker was one of three artists on the program at Tongala on Sunday, along with Kane Vincent and Amelia May.
Full house: Organisers were ecstatic with the 700-strong crowd, which packed the Mangan St lawns of Tongala on a perfect spring day.
“We had some remaining funds in the budget, so we decided to seek out a face painter. We found Octavia Face Painting from Rochester three days before the event and she was great,” Mrs Townsend said.
“Our cake-making stall was also forced to withdraw only a few days out and we were able to secure Sweet Spot Cakery from Deniliquin.”
Mrs Townsend said the group’s next major assignment was its popular Hay Bale Trail, which would be launched in the first week of December.
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