At their May meeting last Wednesday, Council approved the temporary suspension of alcohol-free zone Market Street and Church Street, for Flavours of Mudgee 2020.
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Two dates were nominated in order to provide a back-up to account for the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event is the culmination of the Mudgee Wine and Food Festival and sees the Mudgee CBD filled to give visitors and locals the chance to experience local wine, food and produce in a street party atmosphere.
Council voted unanimously to suspend the alcohol-free zone for the nominated locations for the hours of 4-9pm on Saturday, September 26. Should Flavours not proceed then, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the hours of 5-10pm on the alternative date of Saturday, November 21, have also been approved.
If the second date is used the times would be moved back an hour to accommodate daylight savings time.
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But before that, next week's easing of regional travel restrictions should also enable people to once again sample the "flavours" of the region.
While Mr Saunders welcomes the support that brings, he is urging everyone to continue to "do the right thing".
"From June 1 we'll have regional travel available again and this will be another boost to the wine industry and grape growers around this region. As we see people come back, tastings will be allowed, cellar doors will be open along with pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafés," he said.
"Next weekend will be the long weekend and we do expect that the region, particularly around Mudgee, will be a real destination for people to come to. Which is fantastic.
"From a local perspective, there would be people who are worried about an influx from city areas, so we do ask people to do the right thing. And when you are coming to the region, be responsible and do the right thing.
"You need to remember that we're still in the era of things being different. Maintain the distance that you're used to doing now, respect what we have in beautiful areas like Mudgee and across our region - because we want to build on what we've achieved up until this point and not go backwards."
Support for local wine industry timely
The inclusion of viticulture in the Government's $140 million Bushfire Industry Recovery Package has been welcomed, as the local wine industry looks to recover from smoke taint during the summer.
"In this area we didn't see direct impact from flames, but we certainly saw impact from smoke. And from today businesses will be able to start applying for $10,000 in grant funding if affected by smoke taint," Dugald Saunders, member for the Dubbo electorate said.
"Much of the Mudgee region, in fact much of the Central West, was affected during that terrible bushfire period. Most of the wineries in our region have done the testing - which you have to have done and assessed - and if businesses prove that they've had a downturn, then they're eligible for the grant.
"This is about helping support our primary industry and in this region wine is of great importance. Not just from a primary producer point-of-view, but also from a tourism point-of-view."
Jacob Stein, chief winemaker at Robert Stein who also do contract work for other local producers, said that smoke taint affected a large number of growers in the region - but the it was part of "triple" hit the industry has taken. Although, the support package combined with the June 1 easing of regional travel restrictions, mean that things are headed in a positive direction.
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"The drought has been quite hard on the whole industry, but grape growers especially," he said.
"The smoke taint was one of the toughest decision making processes we've ever had. And luckily a lot of people have still made some good wine, but there is definitely negative effects with some producers not being able to sell their fruit.
"Then on the back of that we had the COVID-19 and the closing down of our cellar doors.
"So this support is perfect timing for us really. And it's great that from June 1 we'll be able to open and slowly start to get back to welcoming customers to our cellar doors."
He added that "the phone hasn't stopped with enquiries" - along with their website and social media - regarding next month. However, he wanted to acknowledge the local support that they've received during the shutdown.
"We've had massive support from our locals and we need to thank them, because it's important that a community like ours supports each other - which Mudgee does that really well," he said.