By Dongyun Kwon
Two events are coming to the Healesville Coronation Park on Sunday 7 April.
Healesville Homegrown Food Fair is hosted by Healesville Community Garden and Community Voices in the Park by FoodPatch Art.
The two events started respectively in 2022 and 2021 and have ended up coming together to give more fun since last year.
Healesville Community Garden president and FoodPatch Art event manager Ethne Pfeiffer said she wants to bring the community together around the theme of local and home gardening along with introducing local community groups and amateur music performers throughout the events.
“We want to encourage people to grow a little bit of food,” she said.
“It’s fun with other benefits apart from a cost saving around buying food each week, it’s healthy for doing a bit of exercise, connecting with nature.
“The other thing about it is the opportunity for community groups to connect with community members.”
18 community groups will hold stalls and have a chance to introduce themselves.
Healesville Homegrown Food Fair will include gardening demonstrations, art activities for children, trivia with giveaways and a raffle as well as a guided river walk and free pizza.
The event originally started in 2022 to promote the Healesville Community Garden which has been around for about 14 years.
“Many people still don’t know that we’re here, where we are and what we do,” Ms Pfeiffer said.
“During the Covid lockdown, we had people really concerned about food security. We had interruptions with deliveries to supermarkets and all of those regular things around buying food were disrupted.
“More people then started to look into things like home gardening and community gardening, so it was really a good time to remind people of all the benefits of home and community gardening.”
Music performances will add a festive vibe to the event, local singers and songwriters will perform for people attending the Food Fair or visiting the park.
This year, Community Voices in the Park will be held, while the Healesville Homegrown Food Fair is on, for the first time after its launch three years ago.
The Community Voices in the Park was first held as a part of a free community art project in Coronation Park hosted by FoodPatch Art in 2021.
“I thought it would be nice to have music alongside that event just to add to the atmosphere and also to give an opportunity for local amateur performers to have some way to perform in public,” Ms Pfeiffer said.
“Last year, I thought it might be good to attach the music at the Food Fair, but I started the music concert just after the Food Fair finished.
“This time people asked two events to crossover to make it more fun for everyone.”
Healesville Homegrown Food Fair will start at 11am in the Healesville Coronation Park and Community Voices in the Park by local choirs, bands and soloists will start after the Welcome to Country at 12pm.
Two events are supported by the Yarra Ranges Council through the community development stream.
