THE FIRST FERMENTA!

The idea came eight years ago, after we pulled off the first Cementa Festival someone mentioned that what we needed was a drink. The inevitable reply was that we needed to throw another festival called Fermenta. haha. We had that drink, but it took eight years for the idea to bubble away out of sight out of mind. This year Mid Western Regional Council managed to make that joke a reality and our very first Fermentation festival was launched in Kandos and Rylstone. The event was intentionally low key to keep things within COVID limits, but we managed to have a ball, to learn a lot, and we ate and we drank and we even got drenched! Sadly the fine weather that held for most of the day broke as soon as the bands came out and our final event was washed out. Despite that, the fun that was had and the fascination of exploring all things fermentation marked it as a great day. Lindsay Kelly’s Breakfast with Alpacas was an absolute blast, Diego Bonetto’s Forager’s walk and fermentation with found food workshop (weeds make really good beer, who’d a thunk!), We had a fascinating conversation between an artist, a winemaker and a scientist that began with fermentation and ended with politics. And the gang at Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation launched their Newspaper as a part of the celebrations! It was a great day all round. Thank you to all the Council staff that made the day happen, Mudgee Region Tourism, to all the workshop people who taught us how to ferment all the things, Peter Swaine and Scott Perrin for the welcome to country, and to William Chrighton and Smith and Jones for coming all the way out to play for us (sorry it didn’t happen) and to the community for being the generous and welcoming community that we are so proud to be a part of.