.........The Northland Farming Festival 2007

FarmFest 2007 was held from Monday April 30 to Sunday May 6. It was a weeklong festival celebrating pastoral farming and its importance to the Northland region.

There is no doubt the festival raised the profile of farming. At least 900 Northlanders know more about farming because this is how many burgers and steak rolls the group cooked in Whangarei, Dargaville and Kerikeri on the opening day. More than 1600 people attended around a dozen events and thousands more either read about it in newspapers or heard about it on the radio, including a very entertaining breakfast session with well-known Northland farmer, Geoff Crawford, and equally well-known chef, Paul Jobin.

Feedback from farmers was overwhelmingly positive, with many pleased with the initiative. There was also very positive media coverage of the cornerstone events, the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and the Awesome Northland Animals! Conference held at Waitangi and attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Jim Anderton.

Other events included an AgriKids Day, Best Butchers Window competition, Fun-filled Farm Days - farm visits for school students, Farm Open Day and more.

There is definitely a groundswell of support for a similar event, either next year or in 2009, as the organising committee believed they had simply laid a solid foundation for the future.

To read about industry support for the festival, click here.