THE 2021 Slice of Haven has been postponed once again with organisers concerned they would deliver a half-baked event because of the restrictions imposed by COVID regulations.
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The festival of gourmet food and local entertainment was to be held along the Camden Haven River foreshore on May 24.
However, organisers officially called it off because strict COVID guidelines would exclude thousands of people from attending.
Volunteer event organisers include Lisa McPherson, Robert and Kate Dwyer, Stuart Bate, Julie Krige, Rachel and Craig Freudenstein.
Event organiser Kate Dwyer said the 2021 event would have required a buy-and-leave system with strict seating at tables or a limited-number at entry ticketed system.
"The event itself, and the restrictions placed on it, meant that it couldn't be as attractive as it normally is for stallholders, members of the public and businesses," she said.
"To make it comply with the restrictions it would have been run like a market, people buying food and then leaving. They would not have been able to spend the day and it would have been limited to 3000 people at maximum.
"To limit the number of the crowd wouldn't have been fair on the stall holders who have prepared for the event. It's traditionally an inclusive event and that would have made it an exclusive event, which is not what we want.
"We're disappointed obviously but we felt doing a half-hearted event would lead to it losing its shine, its attraction as a family gathering and as a gourmet food festival.
"We felt that we couldn't do the event justice as a smaller, ticketed event. We ran through a number of scenarios to turn the event but we just didn't have the man power to make it work."
Mrs Dwyer said there were also concerns they couldn't rally enough volunteers required for COVID marshalling and cleaning.
The event was one of the few remaining premier food festivals operating in the region after Port Macquarie-Hastings Council decided to discontinue Tastings on Hastings in 2019.
Slice of Haven organisers said they were disappointed for sponsors, stallholders, volunteers and visitors, but would bring it back bigger and better when it is safe to do so.
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