Donut and Beer Festival 2017: Winter Edition Review

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Posted 2017-08-18 by Jen ⇒ follow

Sat 19 Aug 2017 - Sun 20 Aug 2017

If the launch of the Donut and Beer Festival for this year is anything to go by, it's not an event to be missed. Not only will you fill up in spite of it being a hol(e)ier affair, you can also feel hol(e)ier than thou, as a portion of your ticket goes towards FareShare . A worthy cause, FareShare rescues surplus food and cooks free nutritious meals for Victorians doing it tough.

Head over to Batman Royale , 14 Gaffney St, North Coburg for this Winter Edition Festival on Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 August 2017. There'll be just two sessions each day from 11am to 3pm and 4pm to 8pm both days.

Tickets are $15 full price with kids under 12 going free; groups of 4 people $45. Tickets include fast entry and a taster of the official festival beer. GET YOUR TICKETS HERE .

Keep in mind, to ease crowds and queues, a ticketed cashless system is being used. Your ticket will be scanned and put onto a card (think debit card) which you'll use like PayPass for the day to buy food and drink.

The VIP Launch event at the Manchuria in the city was handled by Inka Creative founder and director Sara Borowiak and Inka's Creative Projects Manager Dee McNamara in collaboration with Ngoc Le, Founder of Donut Fest Australia and Dessert Parlour . Judges on the night were Chef Adrian Li of Saigon Sally and Tokyo Tina fame and International Pastry Chef Pierrick Boyer of Petit Gateau/home La Petite Gateau .

With seven varieties of donuts submitte by the various creators, guests tasted and voted for their favourites by dropping pom poms in a jar next to the chosen donut. I placed my pom pom firmly in the jar of my favourite. Results of the winner will be announced at the festival and I'll be watching with interest to see if my chosen donut came first.

Donuts and drinks flowed on the night, along with short speeches and introductions from representatives of the Donut Festival, FareShare and Kooinda who developed special festival brews made donut friendly from sessional amber ale with a touch of caramel malt.

Super new kids on the block D'lighted Mixology's Christiina Nguyen and her business partner June Tran were there with their artisan craft drinks presented in lightbulbs. They're so new, they are yet to create their Facebook Page and Website. You can however find them on Instagram ( #dlightedmixology ) and of course at the Donut Festival, so be sure to taste their lychee, milk tea and coffee flavoured delights which were served on the night of the event.

Donuts I tasted on the night came from

Holy Bombolina

Ostrich & the Egg

Honey dee loukoumades

Dandee Donuts

Nuts About Tella

Doughnut Time ; however I didn't make it to the 7th latecomer entry which was all gone before I could make my way across to it. Still, six varieties tried over and over again, to be sure, to be sure, was more than enough don't you think?

Head over to the event and do good at the same time for FareShare. Enjoy more than a few varieties of sweet and savoury donuts from more vendors than were at the Manchuria event, and enjoy the live entertainment, beer, cocktails, hot chocolate, mulled wine and more. There'll be the fun of the festival with a donut wall and art installations and a donut eating competition with prizes.

Stay updated via the Donut Fest's Facebook page and let's get this festival on the road to becoming a recurring annual event, because one donut festival is just not enough.