lead-up to the inaugural event (Photo: BaconFest)
August 30, 2018
No decision has been made yet by the organising committee about whether BaconFest will return in 2019 or whether it should become a biannual event.
“Chief baconeer” Kathryn Stevens told community members at a Stanwell briefing on Thursday morning the most important thing was the event should be sustainable.
Kathryn and fellow baconeer Felicity Cavill were invited to speak at the community update because Stanwell were one of the sponsors for the festival, which drew an estimated 7000 people to the Kingaroy CBD.
“It was amazing to see so many people in town, enjoying Kingaroy and knowing that they had driven from all sorts of different places through the beautiful South Burnett to get there,” Kathryn said.
She said BaconFest’s committee had started with three key aims they were keen to achieve:
- To provide an economic boost for the town
- To provide an excuse for people outside the region to visit Kingaroy, and
- To boost community pride.
To measure the economic effect of BaconFest, the committee is working with a Victorian survey company, IER Pty Ltd.
“We will be able to provide some concrete economic data about how much people spent over the course of the weekend in coming weeks,” Kathryn said.
“But just anecdotally, I think there were lots of businesses that really did benefit.
“I don’t think (the food vendors) knew what hit them on the Saturday when people started rocking up for lunch.
“I know a lot of vendors actually ran out of produce on Saturday afternoon and then had to re-stock – and they re-stocked locally.
“The orange guy, who was doing freshly squeezed orange juice, he ran out of all his oranges by 1:00pm on Saturday but then bought a hundred kilos of oranges locally, and then ran out of that as well.”
Felicity said visitors had come from Brisbane, Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast, Bundaberg, Mt Gambier, Melbourne, Perth and even South Africa.
She said she hoped the event would grow and become a flagship event for the area.
Kathryn said the KCCI and local businesses had got behind BaconFest.
“Dawn, from the Glendon Street Cafe, I think she had a huge weekend and the Commercial (Hotel) … said they had the biggest day of trading ever,” she said.
“The Carrollee said their business tripled over the course of that weekend compared to a general weekend.
“I know that the Utopia (Cafe) went through 10 kilos of pulled pork on the Saturday morning and opened for lunch which they don’t generally do on a Saturday.”
Kathryn said the committee was hoping to build on the success of the first event and make it a really worthwhile thing for businesses in years to come.
She said the committee was undecided at the moment whether BaconFest should run every year or every two years.
“We are seeking advice from experts,” she said.
“We are just reviewing our committee as well.
“We want to make sure that this event is sustainable. We want to make sure it is just as exciting, just as interesting and has the same pulling power the next time it happens.
“Over the coming months we will speak to our key sponsors – to Sunpork Fresh Foods – to the Council, and we will also be talking to experts in the industry.
“We’ve had the privilege of working with Linda Tillman, who heads up a company called rEvents, and we will certainly be picking her brain in the weeks to come about the best way forward.”
Related links:
