Zoe Moffatt
The beauty of the Macedon Ranges in autumn will once again be in the spotlight next month when council hosts the award-winning Autumn Festival.
The annual festival, which won the 2022 Victorian Tourism Award for Festivals & Events, will run throughout April, celebrating the food, wine, arts and culture scene in the Macedon Ranges.
Mayor Annette Death said locals and visitors should start planning their itineraries now, and discover something new in the Macedon Ranges.
“We really are spoilt for choice when it comes to the shire’s diversity of local wares, the producers behind them and our natural surroundings,” she said.
“The Autumn Festival puts the spotlight on all of these.”
The festival will see the return of previous favourites, including First Nations events, an autumn gardens trail, a pie and tart trail, an edgy vege trail, the gardener puppets and a range of artistic workshops.
Cr Death said 39 businesses are participating in the pie and tart trail and will all be putting up a unique pie or tart for the event.
“Call it pie-in-the-sky thinking, but we believe the 2023 Macedon Ranges Autumn Festival’s Pie and Tart Trail could be the biggest of its kind in Australia/the Southern Hemisphere,” she said.
“Based on some desk top-crust research, the closest similar trail we could sauce was the 2022 Pie Time trail in New South Wales’ Southern Highlands, which boasted 37 outlets.”
“We challenge anyone to meat us on our claim!”
With almost 15,000 people visiting the festival in 2022, the council said the event provides a welcome boost to the local economy.
The festival will go on to represent Victoria at the national Tourism Awards in Sydney later this month.
Details: www.visitmacedonranges.com/autumn-festival/
