Gunnedah's councillors have agreed to create one large food festival for the shire offering both Italian and local delicacies.
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Gunnedah Jockey Club's request to merge the annual Porchetta festival and the inaugural Hay and Harvest Festival has been accepted by Gunnedah Shire Council at Wednesday's ordinary meeting.
Council's economic development officer Charlotte Hoddle said at the meeting "it was great to see a new event added to the Gunnedah events calendar".
"It's also a way to collaborate with the community's organisations, and a way of the community getting together and celebrating our wonderful produce," Ms Hoddle said.
"The partnership between council and the Gunnedah Jockey Club to create the Gunnedah Hay and Harvest Festival is a unique and logical opportunity to establish and grow an event that will become a financially sustainable, high-quality food festival and a destination of choice on the regional event calendar."
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As part of the motion, councillors nominated Cr Colleen Fuller and Cr Anne Luke as the council representatives for the event's new working group.
Deputy mayor Rob Hooke said he thought the two councillors would do well in organising the festival ready for early 2020.
"I think it's a really wonderful initiative. I think there's quite a lot of work to be done and it's something that these two councillors can get their teeth into and do an extremely good job," Cr Hooke said.
The working group will also include two members of the jockey club, one member of the Gunnedah Chamber of Commerce, and three staff representatives consisting of the council's economic development officer, manager economic development, and tourism supervisor.
Gunnedah council will call for expressions of interest for three community representative positions in the working group in the coming months.
Originally planned for the Namoi riverside, the merge will mean the event will relocate to Gunnedah Jockey Club.
It is expected to see about 3000 visitors in its first year and include music, art installations, market stalls and practical demonstrations.
Porchetta was a highly-anticipated Italian food festival held in the shire but after seven years, the event committee called it a day in 2016 because of a lack of volunteers.
The jockey club had plans to revive the cultural event after receiving a $20,000 state government grant in 2018, but had been unable to get it off the ground due to issues within the club.
This funding will now combine with the hay and harvest festival's seed funding of $17,000 through the federal government's Building Better Regions Fund to create the new event.