Perth's newest boutique food company has hit back at Perth keyboard warriors who mercilessly savaged their weekend cheese festival, saying they missed the point entirely.
Turns out the Fromage Artisans' Festival Fromage at Perth's Town Hall was about more than just guzzling as many free samples as possible, for as long as possible.
Nearly 2000 people expressed interest in the event, which brought together boutique producers from across the state for sessions devoted to degustation, tastings and masterclasses from Friday to Sunday.
But what organisers called a "glitch" in planning and the "somewhat misaligned expectations" of the public led to long queues on Saturday afternoon for the tastings session.
"Waited for 40 minutes only to get told that we would have to wait for a further hour to an hour and half to get into the venue. As people left we were told how cramped and packed it was inside, so much so that you weren't even able to taste any cheese," one said.
"Go by [sic] $28 worth of cheese and sit in the park instead," said another.
"Overpriced entry, undersized venue, poorly signed (no directions to downstairs or the "picnic area"), only 11 cheese stalls," said yet another.
The abuse continued.
"Terribly run, oversold event where we didn't get to taste any cheese at all and left after an hour as it was ridiculously packed. The organisers should be ashamed of themselves."
"Did we need to BYO cheese?" asked one.
Others were nicer.
"A great vibe. Cheese yum, alcohol yum and who doesn't love a bit of chutney. Was in Europe a few months ago and quality of cheese was great like that. Sure it was busy but the organisers offered people waiting their money back. Can't get any better than that," one said.
"We had such fun and tasted some incredible cheeses and wines that I hadn't seen before. The stall holders were really generous with their knowledge and we left with a bag heaving with yummy cheese.
Festival director Danicia Quinlan said the public's expectations of the Saturday afternoon session were "somewhat misaligned".
"We've had an amazing and festival, degustation on Friday and morning session Saturday, our vendors are ecstatic and the crowd was lovely," she said.
"The issue was for an hour yesterday.
"The hall has a capacity of about 700 and this was supposed to be about people moving through from 2.30pm staggered over a four-and-a-half-hour period, doing a few tastings and then going out and having a picnic after, perhaps choosing some cheese to take with.
"We made assumptions on people's arrival time so the hall wouldn't reach capacity.
"But the full 900 ticketholders basically arrived at once from 2.15-2.45, wanting to get in at 2.30 on the dot – I'm not sure Perth people have ever been so punctual – and wanting to park for the afternoon and spend the whole time eating free samples.
"This wasn't meant to be the Good Food and Wine Show. We didn't want a convention centre or field-type event. Some of these cheeses are $200 per kilogram. This was not supermarket cheese.
"It was about respect for a small complement of artisan cheesemakers. People saying there were not enough of them were completely missing the point which is that this was the number of world class cheeses available in WA.
"We had to go down and visit every one preparing the festival; ironically, their main fear about taking part was people just sculling wine and taking loads of cheese."
Ms Quinlan said event organisers had extended the event from one day into two and half in an effort to meet demands while staying true to the vision.
"The logistics were immense," she said.
"This was not just carting wine bottles around. Keeping cheese, a live product, of this quantity and value refrigerated and transported appropriately was a major undertaking.
"I have been the executive director of the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival for two years, a past marketing manager of Black Swan Theatre Company and a long history of running events in the resource sector.
"This was just a glitch around people's obsession with cheese. It has been disappointing that a minority of people were so cutting."
By Sunday afternoon, things appeared to calm down on the event's Facebook page, without further problems.
Artisan Fromage is intending to establish a licensed fromagerie in Perth.
0 comments
New User? Sign up