The Shepparton Festival kicks off on Friday evening and will go over 17 days with 49 events with this year’s theme of “Be Consumed” celebrating the 20 years of the festival.
On Sunday the Murchison Tomato Festa will be back and over 5,000 people are expected to attend this event which is also part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
On Saturday the AFL Nab Challenge will take over Deakin Reserve with Essendon and Geelong playing in the inaugural pre-season country game, a celebration of regional areas involvement in the game.
The match should attract a crowd of between 7,000 to 8,000 people with Geelong and Essendon also conducting their community camps in the region. Both clubs will be conducting open training sessions at Deakin Reserve Geelong on Thursday at 3.00pm and Essendon on Friday at 2.30pm.
On Saturday evening the Melbourne Vixens will play the Adelaide Thunderbirds in an ANZ pre-season match with both teams then playing again on Sunday afternoon.
Tickets for the netball events sold out in eight days with 2,000 people attending the events and over 1400 of them visiting from outside of Greater Shepparton including a significant amount from Melbourne as well from regional Victoria and interstate. Double passes to the Netball can still be won via local radio 96 9 Star FM and 95 3SR FM.
In conjunction with the football and netball, Council, in partnership with Shepparton Show Me and Rotary, will be running a craft and produce market to help attract additional people and business to the CBD on Saturday from 9.00am to 2.00pm. Visitors to the market can also win double passes to the match at Deakin Reserve courtesy of the NAB.
Greater Shepparton City Council Director Sustainable Development, Johann Rajaratnam, said the national spotlight will be on Shepparton once again, as the sporting capital of regional Australia.
“This weekend is evidence that Greater Shepparton does a fantastic job of attracting national and international sporting events,” he said.
“Council in partnership with Shepparton Show Me have put a campaign together a state-wide campaign encouraging visitors to make a weekend of it, with the town fully booked for the weekend. This, of course, will flow on to various businesses across the retail, hospitality and entertainment sectors.”
“The estimated economic impact of the weekend’s events is around $1.5 million,” said Mr Rajaratnam. “Our team is working hard to bring the best events to the region stimulating the economy creating jobs and improving the liability of the region.”
For more information on the weekend’s event visit greatershepparton.com.au
