Meeniyan Garlic Festival Cancelled

The much-loved event which was to be held on Saturday 17 February next year has been cancelled. The organisation which runs the event has reluctantly taken the decision to call off the 2024 edition citing a lack of local volunteer support.

Known as a family-friendly event, the Meeniyan Garlic Festival since 2017 has delivered information about garlic from growing it to using it in cooking and remedies as well as providing the opportunities for people to buy bulbs of various varieties for planting and cooking.

But perhaps the biggest take away for many families was the day-long provision of fun activities for kids and music without visitors having to continually put their hand in their pocket.

Despite the increase in the entry fee in 2023 (the first in the event’s history) it still represented excellent value for families at $15 for adults with kids under 16 still free.

“To deliver such a complex event at that price requires two main things,” said Laurie Martin the current president of Meeniyan Festivals & Events, “Good financial backing and solid local volunteer support.”

Visit Victoria and South Gippsland Shire in conjunction with the Gippsland Events Acquisition Fund have provided the financial backing required but, apparently, local volunteerism has dropped off substantially over recent years particularly following the impact of the Covid restrictions which forced the postponement of the event in 2021 and 22.

“In the early years of the event, we had about three busloads of local volunteers but that has now dwindled to little more than a handful.”

To cope with the reduction in volunteers, the event employed a South Gippsland-based professional event manager for the 2023 event as well as paying community organisations on a fee-for-service basis to deliver various components of the event.

“We encountered a violent wind storm the day before the event on top of the extra administration and cost of having to conform to the requirements of a Place of Public Entertainment (POPE) order from council but still managed to deliver our best-ever event in February this year. That couldn’t have been done if it wasn’t for the professionalism and dedication of the Jaydee Events team who took it all in their stride while also managing to recruit volunteers from community organisations across the shire.”

That dedication came at a price, though, with a major impact on the firm’s resources leading to the principals earning less than $10 per hour from the agreed fee. Although Jaydee continue to provide some assistance to the organisers, it is not economically viable for them to continue to deliver management services in the future without a major increase in fee.

“We believe the Garlic Festival model is still viable and represents an excellent opportunity for a South Gippsland town to capitalise on all the development work that has gone into the event and the recognition the concept has amongst thousands of people from Melbourne and outside the shire.”

Perhaps the best encapsulation of the event was shown in the segment shot by Adam Liaw and Poh Ling Yeow at this year’s event which appeared in a recent episode of their Great Australian Bites TV show on SBS where it was referred to as a Country Show and, apart from the cooking, had vision of kids enjoying themselves involved in fun activities outdoors and away from screens.

“In reality, you need about a dozen people each committed to managing an aspect of the event who can work with a team of volunteers to deliver that component on the day. Despite having a committee renewal this year, we just haven’t been able to recruit that number of people so have had to reluctantly agree we just can’t continue to stage the event in Meeniyan.”

While they are still confident the event can be successful in another town, the current organising committee is Meeniyan Festivals & Events which doesn’t have a mandate to operate in other towns.

“I’m sure any other town which decides to have a crack at running the event can count on intellectual input from those of us with history in it.”

Photography: Ken Spence Photography