The inaugural Riverina Harvest Festival was a huge success. Photo: Happy Wombat Hazelnuts, Batlow Tumbarumba Growers Group.
The Harvest Riverina Festival will return for its second year, building on the success of the inaugural event. The two-day festival will take place in March 2026, and the organisers are looking for stallholders, producers and local foodies to participate in what they hope will be an even bigger occasion.
Harvest Riverina organisers hope to bring together farming, gardening and local food communities during the festival under their three pillars of collaboration, sustainability and connection.
Festival chair Eltan Mestan told Region that despite producing a great deal of food locally, the Riverina didn’t have a resilient food system.
“Riverina is one of the food bowls of NSW and Australia, but a lot of the food is grown here at a large scale and then shipped to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane and sold on to big companies and supermarkets, and then driven back down here! It’s not accessible,” he said.
“So we’re trying to support smaller farmers who have the opportunity to take care of the land better, but at the same time show everyone that buying from a large, corporate supermarket isn’t the only way to get your food.”
ErinEarth volunteer and gardener Eltan Mestan is the festival committee chair. Photo: ErinEarth.
The festival will begin with a conference day featuring presenters including author Matthew Evans and Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis. The day will be aimed at people interested in strengthening regional food systems. After last year’s 100-seat venue sold out, organisers have chosen a space that will accommodate double the number of attendees, and will also make the program available online.
“We’ve got some good speakers who will attract people, but we don’t want it just to be a talkfest, we want something to come out of it,” Eltan said.
“We want to have at least one of the local speakers try and have a really interactive session with a lot of other local growers and producers involved in the conversation to try and get some practical solutions. Maybe something we can take to the government.”
Saturday’s free event at the riverside will feature a full program of practical gardening workshops, including both a kids’ and adults’ workshop area and a chef’s tent showcasing how delicious local food is. TV chefs Matthew Evans and Paul West of River Cottage Australia will host presentations alongside local chefs.
There will also be live music performances throughout the day.
“All the musicians are local singer-songwriters who will be playing their own music, not covers,” Eltan said. ”We’re encouraging local food, and also local music.”
Local singer-songwriters will perform original tunes at the festival. Photo: Riverina Harvest Festival.
A range of farmer stallholders will sell their produce, along with local craftspeople and artisans. Food trucks from local businesses, community groups such as CWA, Rotary and Wagga’s multicultural community will cook with local produce, with stallholders’ dishes required to contain about 60-70 per cent locally grown ingredients.
That means tasty Riverina-raised snags on the barbecue!
Stallholder applications are still open. Eltan and the festival committee are hoping to exceed the first festival, with more attendees, more producer and farmer participants and more collaboration with local businesses.
The Harvest Riverina Festival will be held on Friday and Saturday, 20-21 March, 2026.
Follow the event’s Facebook page for more details.
To apply to be a stallholder, email [email protected].
