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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-02 Daily Xml
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MCLAREN VALE HARVEST FESTIVAL

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:32): I rise today to congratulate the organisers of this year's harvest festival in McLaren Vale and to wish them all the very best as they already begin working on next year's harvest festival in early to mid-January. This year's festival, which was held on the weekend of 13 and 14 January was an outstanding success and a brilliant first-up effort for this festival.

It was organised by the local community to celebrate all that is great about the McLaren Vale region; that is, the wine, the food, the people and the arts. It kicked off on the Friday night with a sell-out dinner at Serafino's at McLarens on the Lake and we were very privileged to have Governor Kevin Scarce and his wife with us for the occasion. They stayed around the following day for the festival itself on the McLaren Vale sports and football oval.

Saturday's events kicked off with a parade of food. We had lots of children from the area carrying bits of fruit and vegetables that had been grown locally. There were a number of religions represented there by their community leaders, and the food was blessed. The festival really kicked off on the Saturday morning. There were unbelievably huge crowds—I think the estimate was up around 6,000 or 7,000 people—coming in throughout the day. I know it was busy when I arrived there at about 10 o'clock in the morning and the crowds just continued to stream in through the day. Simon Bryant, the celebrity chef, was there and you could barely get near him because of the very thick crowds that gathered to watch his cooking demonstrations.

A lot of people did a lot of hard work over the previous year to make this event such a success. As I said, it was the first harvest festival and they are very hard to get off the ground as inaugural festivals. I want to pay tribute to the committee, which was led by Martin Lightfoot and Vicki Vaserelli, as the co-chairs. Clive Allert is the treasurer and other committee members include Jenni Mitton, the secretary; Maria Magueri, who was in charge of sponsorship; Jade Seskis, events; and Adam Jacobs, site management. Adam was out there, I know, on the Friday night preparing things and then first thing on the Saturday morning as well, working very hard to make sure that everything went off very well.

John Phillips was also on the committee, as was Ute Annells, Robin Schubes, Emma Hodge, John Franklin and Joe Petrucci. Joe, again, is one of the great characters of the McLaren Vale region, from Sabella Vineyards. With his big moustache, Joe is recognised around the community for his generous input into so many great community events.

Phillip Tanner, who is also on the committee, is from Onkaparinga council. Phillip did an outstanding job. I know that, at one stage on Saturday afternoon, he was almost down with heat exhaustion, he had just worked so hard over not just that day and the preceding night but for several months to make sure that it was a success. Karon Swan was also on the committee, in charge of the website.

I am very pleased to hear, talking to Joe Petrucci today, that all of the committee members have put their hand up to make sure that the event happens again next year. I wish everyone all the very best in the preparations for the harvest festival No. 2 in 2013 and offer any assistance that I can.

I might also point out that they had a spaghetti eating competition and a wine spitting competition. They invited local celebrities to be involved in that, so I went into both of those. While I took it easy on the spaghetti eating, I did excel in the wine spitting. The target to beat next year is five metres and I have got a beautiful trophy—a 1½ litre magnum inscribed with 'The Inaugural Wine Spitting Champion of McLaren Vale'. That is sitting proudly on the mantelpiece in my office here in Parliament House.

The member for Schubert is here and, as a representative of the Barossa, maybe we could have a spit-off one day to see if you can beat a five-metre spit, member for Schubert. I wish everyone all the very best. In particular, I should thank the sponsor, Simply Organoleptic, which sponsored the celebrity wine spitting and spaghetti eating competitions.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Hon. M.J. Wright): Time is up. Looking at your waistline, I am pleased you are not eating spaghetti. The king of the Barossa, the member for Schubert.

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