After a record crowd last year, the Southern Highlands Food & Wine Festival is back for its sixth edition in 2017. Held over the weekend of 30 Sep – 1 Oct, The Southern Highlands Food & Wine Festival showcases some of the region’s most creative and innovative winemakers, food producers and chefs, right in the heart of Bowral!

The festival gives both locals and visitors alike the chance to sample some of the finest food and wines from the Southern Highlands region. In 2016, the picturesque Corbett Gardens was teeming with classes, cooking demonstrations, pop-up restaurants, tastings, and entertainment. The festival is run by the Southern Highlands Food & Wine Association, a non-profit organisation dedicated to showing off the producers and people of the Southern Highlands region.

This year’s edition will feature Justine Schofield as the festival’s masterclass chef. Justine, who is the host of Channel Ten’s Everyday Gourmet and an ex-MasterChef contestant, will be treating the crowd to cooking demonstrations and book signings over both days of the event. Justine is also hosting the 2017 Australian Highlands Wineshow Awards gourmet dinner on the night before the festival, September 29, at the Gibraltar Hotel in Bowral. Tickets for the dinner are $150, and can be purchased here.

Adult tickets for the festival can be purchased online, here, for $12. Gate tickets over the weekend will be $15 for adults, and children under 18 get in for free. Ticket holders will receive a special festival glass on arrival, which can be used to sample products from a range of local award-winning wineries.