Co-director of Seasons of New England, Tara Toomey, thinks this years Seasons of New England will be the biggest ever event held, and she is one person who would certainly know because she has been intimately involved in organising the events for six years.
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This year's Seasons of New England is due to commence in Uralla's Hampden Park on Saturday, March 30, and Tara said it promised to be something very special.
There's literally nothing not covered, its Westfields on steroids.
- Tara Toomey
"It's designed to be a New England showcase, a showcase of the region's producers," she said.
"We gather people from Tenterfield to Tamworth and from Inverell to Dorrigo, and we put them all in a beautiful cricket oval for the day with a beautiful market atmosphere, great local live musicians.
"It's an opportunity to meet people from right across the spectrum. It's a fully licenced event. So, we've got the gin, the beer, the wine, the cider as well as people with Merino wool product, and candle and silversmiths, people who are amazing at making their own bespoke garden creations; things like custom gates."
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Tara said there would be children's clothing and women's fashions along with a growing range of men's shirts.
"There's a lady coming who has just started designing her own patterns for men's shirts," she said.
"There's literally nothing not covered, its Westfields on steroids.
"When you look at it, per capita, the smaller towns have the most small businesses. There are a lot of really tiny villages and towns from the New England region being represented at the expo."
Tara said while people in the smaller towns were often self-employed, they also often had to travel to sell the product they made.
"We're drawing people from Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle and further afield to New England to discover New England. We want to make sure this is a New England-based opportunity for people to be discovered by Australia and the World," she said.
"There are a lot of people who come who have great online profiles. So, you can discover them, and then keep shopping all year online with them. But it's about being discovered in the first instance, and that's what this platform is really important for."
Tara said she was not aware of any other event that set out to specifically promote New England businesses and thought it could already be called the New England "Expo".
"There's a lot on this weekend, we've got on into the evening the beautiful Uralla Lantern Parade," Tara said.
"Although the expo finishes at 4pm we continue on with some light music and some light meals to support it."
