ALL things New England will be on show at the fourth annual Seasons of New England festival this weekend.
The expo aims to showcase the best the region has to offer.
Seasons of New England organiser Tara Toomey said small business will be centre stage at this year’s expo.
“We’re very parochial, we have very clear boundaries and it’s only for New England businesses,” she said.
“The whole aim is to give those businesses a platform, because most don’t have a shop – they’re either home based or web based and a lot of the time people don’t even know they exist within their own region.”
The whole aim is to give those businesses a platform, because most don’t have a shop... and a lot of the time people don’t even know they exist within their own region.
- Tara Toomey
This year, more than 100 businesses and producers will be represented at the expo.
Retail giants from Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle attend the event to scout new and niche products to bring to their clients.
“They often like to fly under the radar and not tell us they’ve decided to come, we find that the biggest businesses in those centres do often come and we find out later that they’ve purchased from some of our expo businesses for the next season,” Ms Toomey said.
This year four wineries, two distilleries and a cider business will be serving up ice cold beverages at the fully-licensed event.
Live entertainment, clothing, small goods, candles and soft furnishings will be on offer.
“We’ll also have a huge amount of food there on the day,” Ms Toomey said.
“We try and drive economic growth, that sounds like a bit of a catch phrase but when we’ve talked about it and boiled it down it really is what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get that money from outside in.”
More than 4000 people are expected to attend, with more than 50 per cent coming from more than 100 kilometres away.
Seasons of New England is on this Saturday at Hampden Park from 9am.