September 12, 2018
Grey skies and a small shower in the morning had the organisers of the Blackbutt Avocado Festival a little worried on Saturday … but despite the gloomy start, the crowds “rolled” in.
In fact, it seemed they didn’t give a “toss” about the weather!
The annual celebration of everything avo encouraged visitors to toss avocados, juggle avocados, golf with avocado seeds, guess the weight of a particularly plump avocado and test their strength holding up bags of avocados …
Several new avo games joined the now-traditional avocado roll on the event program this year.
(For the record, the $1000 Avocado Roll was won by Shayne Burns with runner-up Brittany Muirhead.)
Lots of people also dressed for the occasion, sporting avocado-themed pants, ties, shirts and / or jewellery.
Les Lane, from Blackbutt, was awarded the prize for the best avocado costume.
Of course, there were also avocados for eating, including avo ice cream, avo cheese cake and, naturally, avo salads.
At “Avo Central”, ie. the Blackbutt Memorial Hall, South Burnett Food Ambassador Jason Ford hosted several cooking demonstrations throughout the day, working alongside local identities on stage.
The first of these featured Noeleen Bird, from the Blackbutt and District Tourism and Heritage Association, who joined Member for Nanango and Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington in whipping up some egg, bacon and avocado masterpieces on toasted bagels with hollandaise sauce.
Mrs Frecklington was also called upon to officially open the event, which she described as an “amazing day”.
She praised the organisers for spreading the word about the fabulous produce that comes from the South Burnett.
The major highlight of the festival is always the street parade and this year it was bigger and better than ever.
It wound its way down Coulson Street from the new IGA supermarket, then along the rail trail to the Memorial Hall (see below).
Crowds lined the street to snap photos as the parade went by.
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Street Parade
