The Spanish Food and Wine Festival held on Sunday brought hundreds of people to Harden to celebrate the opening of the Neill St upgrade.
After constant rain for most of the week Mother Nature turned on a glorious day for the partygoers who ate and drank to their fill, sampling some of the best local produce the region has to offer.
Mayor Chris Manchester said that the vision for the main street went back 4 years where council committed to do a beautification of the area to bring more people to the town.
Manchester made special mention of Councillor Tony Flanery for his dedicated work on the project. He went on to say that without the support of the staff and the workers the event would not have been possible.
Manchester also thanked the public and the businesses for their patience during the project, and said that in the next couple of months he hoped to transform the main road through the town. Special mention was made of Economic Development Officer Jess Cavanagh for her work, on the event, which began several months ago.
Federal member for Hume, Angus Taylor, paid tribute to the Harden community and mentioned that he had 12 local government areas in his electorate. He commented that he was incredibly impressed with the streetscape project and other projects such as the wireless internet project.
Mr Taylor said that other towns are sitting up and taking notice of what Harden is doing. Mr Taylor observed that the final stage, the roundabout, would be the icing on the cake and joked that a boom gate should be installed to force everyone through the main street so that travellers on the Burley Griffin Way should all get to see the upgrade.
Mr Taylor said that the people who could be brought to Harden over the coming years would stay and make it their home, as it is an irresistable place.
The Paella and Pork rolls were very popular, with over 300 servings sold on the day alone. Kristy Wright, Dean Hodkinson and Kim Hill worked tirelessly all day, keeping the crowd fed. The length of the line stretched from the left front door of the Mechanics Institute to the front door of Harden’s Supa IGA and at times was 3 people wide.
Popular Wagga duo “Carly and Me” entertained the crowd as did dancers from Christine Wishart’s Dance Studio, Cootamundra.
Harden’s last attempt at a festival was the Wheat Festival conducted in the early 1990s. The success of last weekend’s festival, the ability to showcase the area’s produce and the townsfolk’s spirit is a fine example of what the people of this community can achieve.
The Spanish Festival Committee could only be regarded as a skeleton crew, and those interested in being a part of organising such an event in the future should contact Jess Cavanagh at Harden Shire on 6386 0100.
