Any dedicated foodie would tell you that the 2020 culinary calendar hasn’t felt quite right without Noosa’s famed Eat & Drink Festival, so it’s with hearty appetites and brimming glasses that we cheers to the Noosa Eat & Drink Summer Celebration. Indulging bellies and igniting minds, the 2020 program dances from long lazy lunches in the hinterland to degustation dinners, food and discovery tours to meet-the-maker experiences, cooking classes to winemaker lunches, and river cruises to sunset soirees and picnics. While the official event will run from Friday December 4 to Sunday December 6, you and your tastebuds will no doubt want to make a real holiday of it and continue the dining adventure well beyond the closing event.

The long weekend offers a chance to celebrate the beautiful Noosa region and its diverse pool of talented chefs, brewers, distillers, food producers and roasters via a collection of bespoke events. Kick off the weekend with a divine Summer Harvest Lunch by Black Ant Gourmet chef Jodie Williams at Kin Kin General Store. Be treated to a mead tasting or glass of bubbles on arrival, before admiring displays from local food producers and sharing an inspired lunch featuring locally sourced ingredients. Nu Nu To Noosa – A Tropical South East Asian Treat will see Palm Cove-based head chef and co-owner of Nu Nu Restaurant Nick Holloway collaborate with Season Restaurant chef Andrew Tomlin for a four-course lunch paired with low-intervention, biodynamic and organic wine. Hopheads will love the Cheers To Beers Summer Dinner at Noosa Springs Golf & Spa Resort, which will see three beer-inspired courses matched to craft brews from Gage Roads Brewing Co and Matso’s Broome Brewery. If you’re in the mood for a side of banter and live performance with your meal, secure a ticket to The Perfect Perch, where you can witness four talented chefs go head to head while raising funds for Glossy Black Conservancy. Matt Golinski and Andrew Wilcox of View at Peppers Noosa Resort & Villas, Glen Barratt of Wild Canary Botanical Bistro and Dominique Rizzo of Gourmet Food & Wine Tours will each dish up a course featuring local produce from the Noosa and Gympie regions. Find information and tickets to all of these events and more here.

The festival program is packed with highlights, spanning the entire Noosa region from Hastings Street to the hinterland, and from the beach to the river, meaning you can take your pick of locations when choosing your accommodation for the weekend. Check out some standouts here or here. More events will be rolling out in the coming weeks, so subscribe to the festival newsletter and follow the Noosa Eat & Drink Summer Celebration Facebook and Instagram accounts to stay up to date on announcements.