February 28, 2019
The South Burnett’s annual Wine And Food In The Park festival plans to become more eco-friendly this year.
The festival attracts thousands of guests … and by the end of the day they always produce tonnes of rubbish.
But this year, organisers plan to strike a blow for the environment.
“Wine and Food is held in Kingaroy’s Memorial Park, and after 20 years this is a really special place for us,” committee treasurer Shaun Bliesner said.
“Council help us out by supplying wheelie bins and a big skip to collect everyone’s empty bottles, cans and food wrappings, and take it to the tip next day.
“Every festival, we always hire a community group to do on-site garbage collection runs for us to ensure the wheelie bins don’t overflow.
“And the day after the Festival, our committee goes on an emu parade to ensure we leave Memorial Park as good as we found it.”
But this year, with the new regional recycling facility operating at Cherbourg and the State Government’s Containers for Change program up and running, festival organisers want to go a step further.
“We all want to do our bit for the environment,” Shaun said.
“So this year we’re putting special signs on some of the wheelie bins asking our guests to only put empty cans in them.
“After the Festival’s over, we’ll be donating these cans to a local community group for recycling.”
Shaun said with a typical festival generating 5000-6000 cans, recycling can make a big contribution to reducing landfill as well as being a handy community fundraiser.
“We’re confident festival-goers will join in with us on this, and we hope the South Burnett’s other festivals follow our lead, too,” Shaun said.
“Together we can all make a really big difference to our environment.
“And it’s such a simple thing to do.”
- The 20th annual Wine and Food In The Park will be held in Memorial Park in Haly Street, Kingaroy on Saturday, March 9 from noon to 8:00pm. Admission is $20 for adults, and under-18s are free.
