It has been a busy month since our Homegrown Parkes event!

I am pleased to be able to provide some feedback from this event from 39 community responses and 20 Stallholder/Vendor responses.

We try to factor in your suggestions moving forward, particularly around demonstrations, workshops, educational opportunities and stallholder suggestions.

We don’t rate our events on the number of stallholders. We rate the event on the quality of the event. So for example, having 100 stalls in Cooke Park would be insane. It is really important that we maintain a standard that focusses on promoting local and regional businesses, not for profits etc. Bigger is not necessarily better…and not our goal.

So….if your only comment was that you thought it would be bigger, it was your first event, rated it a 2, you never spoke to anyone or would never attend another event, but you spent up to $40 at the event, we’re not going to lose any sleep over it, but to everyone else, thank you for your constructive feedback!

General survey feedback for the event (including the 2), was 8.1 out of 10. Location of vendors was rated 8.2 and the mix of stallholders was rated at 8.4. Overwhelmingly the feedback said that they would definitely attend a future event. It was also good to see that we had some first-timers at the event as well as many who were returning.

Of the 20 Stallholder/Food Vendor responses the event was rated 9.2 our of 10, with 8.7 for location and spacing, 90% would definitely return, with a couple of ‘maybes’ as well. We thank you and we were also pleased to see that you had such a fantastic day in terms of sales!

Central West Lachlan Landcare have committed to delivering Homegrown Parkes events until June 2025. This is run for people in our local area. We don’t have a team of paid people running the event, apart from a part-time contribution from my role, we are supported by volunteers from our Landcare Committee, volunteers from the Parkes Community Arts Committee and with support from Parkes Shire Council.

Please keep a look out on our social media and this column each week and get in early when we open our Stallholder/Food Vendor Expression of Interest (EOI). We really appreciate everyone going through this process early.

Homegrown Parkes events are supported by volunteers from our Committee, volunteers from Central West Lachlan Landcare, Parkes Community Arts Committee and with in-kind support from Parkes Shire Council. This event also received support from the Northparkes Evolution Community Investment Program.

For further information on this article, please go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org, twitter, facebook or Instagram @cwllandcare