Tamworth Taste: Thousands flock to Bicentennial Park for Taste in the Park

Some stockists said there were locals lined up at 10am, and the crowd never let-up.

Local garlic grower Roy Coady has been selling at the annual market day in Bicentennial Park for three years but Sunday was one of his best.

“The crowds are better this year, and we’ve got more to offer,” he said.

“There were people coming in at the start in the morning and it’s just swelled since then.”

It was the second year the Pig and Tinder Box were in the park and manager Claudia Byrnes said the pork flat buns were flying off the plates.

“We’ve sold about 250 by midday and we’ve got a line-up now for people waiting for our head chef to come back and sell some more, it’s just been a really good day,” she said.

Safari Club’s Elliot Dube said the demand for his ribs was incredible, with the taste teaser “hopefully enough to draw them” to his shop.

“The day is fantastic, everyone is happy, as you can see the queue, we’re giving them the beef and the pork ribs,” he said.

Grumpy’s Ginger Beer seller Tony Roser said they look forward to Taste every year, and had already sold 400 bottles by 1pm.

“It’s been hectic, it’s been excellent ... it’s just the way we like it,” he said.

Taste organiser Crystal Vero said while the official figures wouldn’t be known for a day or two, the numbers looked good.

“From what we can, definitely numbers were up from last year, by quite a few thousand,” she told The Leader.

“I’ve been around to the stallholders, and even they have been blown away with the attendance.”

There were 56 stall holders or activity sites, and a new layout, which paid dividends to get the crowd walking around.

“We had quite a few stall holders report that they had run out of food, and even the ones that were here before said they were up, and with the new layout this year, I think the flow made people want to stay longer,” Ms Vero said.

THERE was plenty of lines for food at Taste in the Park, and it’s blown away some of the shopfronts who ran out of food.

The Plains Pantry from Willow Tree made the trek to Tamworth for the first time to take part in the day and had the sold sign up pretty quickly.

“We’ve sold out by 12, so yeah, next year it’s a learning curve,” Plains Pantry employee Hannah Shaw said.

“It’s been great, it is our first market, we’ve gotten out of the shop today to come up and be part of the day  here at taste, it’s been really good.”

Together with her father, David, Hannah had 150 handmade pies ready to go, before the hungry hoardes snapped up the Colly-Creek beef in just two hours.

“Today is out first … well we didn’t have much of a clue, but no, we’re surprised we’re out by 12,” she said.