Launceston BeerFest will add a live cooking and tasting program to its New Year celebrations, with the launch of The Tassie Table at Royal Park.
The festival is expanding to two days this year, running December 30 and 31.
The Tassie Table will bring together live cooking, tastings, masterclasses and chefs, makers and producers in its own program within the festival.
It will be hosted by Launceston-born chef, former restaurateur and Harvest Market manager Rhys Hannan, who has more than two decades of experience in kitchens and is also a co-host of Left Off the Map.
On December 30, a session called New Year’s Meez will see Hannan run three live cooking presentations in the kitchen using Tasmanian summer produce.
The dishes are built around recovery meals for New Year’s Day, with ingredients from Harvest Market growers and makers.
Hannan said the opportunity was as much about showcasing the people behind Tasmania’s food culture as the produce itself.
“Tasmania has extraordinary produce, but there are also fantastic people growing it, making it and cooking with it,” he said.
“Bringing those people together and giving audiences the chance to interact with them is what makes this exciting.”
“We want it to feel like you’ve pulled up a chair at a big Tasmanian table.”
On New Year’s Eve the focus shifts to Flavour Profiles, a series of masterclasses with local producers, makers, hospitality figures and guest chefs.
BeerFest organisers said the program is the next step for a festival that has long put local food and drink at its centre.
“Tasmanian producers have always been at the heart of BeerFest, but this year we wanted to take that experience to another level,” they said.
“Rather than simply giving people the opportunity to taste incredible local produce, we want them to meet the people behind it, understand where their food comes from, learn how to use it and become part of the experience.”
The festival runs from 4pm to 10pm on December 30 and 4pm to 12.30am on December 31.
Eskimo Joe will headline the first night, with Rogue Traders and SGT Slick playing on New Year’s Eve.
Punters can also expect more than 300 different versions of beer, cider, seltzer and wine, gourmet street food, live comedy, a silent disco, fire twirlers, puppet shows, Taiko drumming and face painting.
Fireworks will go off at 9.30pm and midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Tickets are on sale here
