F.A.W.C: Festival success by any measure

Celebrity chef Ruth Pretty drew a near full-house to her culinary classes staged at Sileni Estate as part of F.A.W.C on Saturday. Photo/Paul Taylor

Staging four intensive successive weekends of fine food, fine wine and fine times has been tiring for the Hawke's Bay Tourism crew but one thing general manager Annie Dundas said they never tired of was hearing nothing but acclaim for the second annual F.A.W.C (Food and Wine Classic) festival.

"It has been a lot of work but everyone involved has been absolutely brilliant - it's all been fantastic and it is only going to grow."

While only in its second winter, and with the upcoming spring and summer version set for November heading into its third, the reputation of F.A.W.C had already started to be cemented across the country, Ms Dundas said.

"It is very definitely building a national reputation and we are hearing more of that - not a lot usually happens in June so we have created something that makes things happen."

At one recent event she was seated at a table of more than 20 people and 80 per cent of them were from out of town.

"They were loving it and said that yes, they'd be back next year."

Some smiling visitors from less-temperate climes also congratulated the F.A.W.C crew for putting on fair, and at times spring-warm, weather over the four weekends of the event.

While Mother Nature had the main say in that area, Ms Dundas was happy to accept the compliment.

This year's festival got under way on June 6 and the signs were clear at that stage that it was going to be an event to raise a glass to upon its completion yesterday.

On the first weekend seven of the 11 events sold out straight away.

Ms Dundas said encouraged by the inaugural mid-winter celebration of the best the Bay had to offer, the number of events were nearly doubled.

The 2013 festival saw 28 events spread over four days.

This year's featured 51 over four weekends, and introduced the F.A.W.C by Five series where special dining and sipping events were staged at a cost of no more than $50. "They were very popular," Ms Dundas said.

The numbers of tickets (2000) to events also accordingly doubled.

She said about 90 per cent of the tickets were sold and had resulted in Hawke's Bay Tourism assembling a strong database of "keen FAWKers" from across the region and the country determined to do it again.

While many visitors chose to stay with friends and relations, Ms Dundas said there had been a mid-winter spin-off for the accommodation and general hospitality industry in the Bay.

"People see it as a great idea to come to Hawke's Bay."

As did the many celebrities who turned out - including Martin Bosley, Ruth Pretty, Simon Gault, Chris Green, Michael Dearth, Richard Emerson and Andy Deuchars.

As preparations for the November event started getting under way, she said there had already been approaches by a couple of television Masterchef winners who asked, "can we come and get involved?"

The programme for that festival will be released toward the end of August.