THE food and wine fight is over after local businessman Jim Berardo officially cancelled the planned re-launch of the Noosa International Food and Wine Festival (NIFWF), leaving creditors in the lurch.
In a statement to the media, Mr Berardo said plans to relaunch the festival in May 2016 had been cancelled due to a lack of funding from tourism bodies, a lack of sponsorship deals and conflicting competition from another local food and wine festival.
Mr Berardo said the “apparent conceptual food festival” proposed by the Sheraton Noosa Resort and Spa for the same dates in May 2016 “has made for a near impossible situation for private sponsors to securely back” the festival.
“Another contributing factor with the private sponsors was the dichotomy of withdrawal of all funding from both the Tourism Events Qld board of directors and Tourism Noosa board of directors, despite the overall enormous success of the NIFWF over many years,” he said.
“I deeply regret after 12 years the festival will not be staged in 2016. We have given it our all and looked to pursue every angle in order to continue, but in light of recent events, we have now decided we cannot proceed to create a profitable and sustainable event at this time hence, we have decided to cancel our plans.”
Mr Berardo said he will not be able to repay creditors, now the festival has been cancelled.
“Without the 2016 event going ahead, we cannot make payments to creditors of Noosa Food and Wine Events Pty Ltd,” he said.
“I have done everything in my power to mitigate the situation but regrettably have had no support and we now do not have the business model to proceed with the repayments.”
Mr Berardo said he and festival co-founder Greg O’Brien invested “millions” from their personal funds into the festival’s start-up phase, saying tourism boards provided “minimal funding only after the festival was established and recognised for its contribution to the local economy.”
Mr Berardo thanked the more than 160 volunteers, staff, patrons, chefs and food producers who all took part in the 12-year history of the NIFWF.
In his statement to the media, Mr Berardo says he “deeply regrets” the current circumstances and hopes the proposed food and wine festival of the Sheraton Resort will “deliver the same or even greater economic benefits, increased visitor nights, media coverage” and reputation of Noosa’s culinary scene.
“It is a pleasure and honour to be a part of that history,” Mr Berardo said.
