THERE are hopes a new chilli festival will spice up a September evening in Cohuna, and provide the town with a hot new tourist event.
The festival is set for Friday, September 29, from 5.30pm at Cohuna’s Garden Park and organiser Tanya Harvey said the festival had been planned since early this year.
“It’s very exciting to finally be announcing the event,” she said.
“This is the very first event I have planned, so it’s been an interesting process of getting everything together and making sure that we are doing all of our planning in the right way.
“It’s been five or six months in the making to get to this point now where we have it all approved.
“Firstly, there is just making sure that all of the food safety and standards are up to scratch.
“There’s also trying to find a date that we think will draw the biggest crowd possible.”
Ms Harvey said she thought the Cohuna district could use a fresh event to draw tourism, and she had been inspired by the success of other food festivals.
“It can get a bit frustrating for people in communities like Cohuna, when they don’t have things to do in the town,” she said.
“We are an amazing district, with such beautiful spaces that we should utilise.
“Places like Bendigo and Echuca have a phenomenal number of tourism events, and I think the more events that we can hold in our community, the more eyes we can get on our area.
The festival was initially slated to take place in winter.
“I think that a lot of people around this region get some form of the winter blues around this time of year,” Ms Harvey said. “I feel like we all need a bit of a pick-me-up in winter.
“What better than a chilli festival in winter to get people red-hot and having a bit of fun with all things chilli?”
With a range of activities for all ages, Ms Harvey said that she was looking forward to the two eating competitions – chilli eating and hot wings.
“You can’t have a chilli festival without having a chilli-eating competition,” she said.
“I was speaking to Max from Murray Mallee Wood Fire Pizza, who has been a great help with planning and ideas.
“He started to speak about competitions, and then suggested that he’d put up $500 for the prize in the competition.
“I then matched his offer with another $500 from my work at Nutrien Harcourts Cohuna, so we have a $1000 prize pool for the two competitions.
“I truly believe in my heart that we can make this event successful, and if I have to put my own money towards it, so be it.”
While the evening will focus heavily on chilli and spice, Ms Harvey said that there would still be chilli-free options.
“I’m a total sook when it comes to spicy food myself, even though I love it,” she said.
“So there’ll be a variety of chilli-free food to enjoy for the people who don’t like spicy food.”
Cohuna Chilli Festival tickets are available online at ticketleap.au
