Merimbula, the perfect place to Thaw out after Winter
Merimbula’s Thaw Festival will be the place to be this October Long Weekend. The Merimbula Chamber of Commerce is hosting the event and inviting seasonal workers leaving the snowy mountains after winter to come down, Thaw out and party with 3 events over 3 days.
It will kick off with the Icebreaker Event at Kitty’s on Saturday 1 October from 4pm until late. Kitty’s is the hottest place in Merimbula with an Asian-fusion inspired menu, cool cocktails, craft beer and chilled tunes. The feature event is Oktoberfest at Oaklands Event Centre on Sunday 2 October from 12pm-7pm. Indulge in some hearty German food , cold German beer, Oompah music and German Slap dancing to get your heart pumping. There will be plenty of food and German Beer available throughout the day. Ticket prices start at $15 which includes Entry, Entertainment and an Oktoberfest Mug. The final event is the Recovery Breakfast on Monday morning from 8.30am at Spencer Park. After a big day celebrating at Oktoberfest it might be a slow start so that’s why they have arranged the Recovery Breakfast. Guests can start their recovery with a hot breakfast and some cool tunes. There will be SUP board races on the lake, or if they are feeling up to it they can hire a SUP or an Ebike and go for a ride. Entertainment is free, and guests just pay for their breakfast or hire.
Merimbula Chamber President Nigel Ayling says, “After a cold winter working in the Snowy Mountains people are looking for some warmth and what better place to head to than Merimbula? We are only a couple of hours drive from the Mountains and we are the prefect summer destination for visitors to Thaw Out and enjoy some of Merimbula’s great coastal attractions.”
Mr Ayling says that is how he actually ended up living in Merimbula. “I was working in the Snowy Mountains in the late 1980s as a Ski Instructor and we decided to stay on over summer and we were living in Berridale. We asked some of the locals where we could go for a weekend and they suggested Merimbula. I can still remember coming down Merimbula Drive and seeing the lake from the top of the hill and thinking out beautiful it was. 14 years later I was living here and we love it. There is a real close association between the Snowy Mountains and the Sapphire Coast with lots of people travelling between the two areas, for work and for activities, but a lot of the seasonal workers from Sydney or Brisbane just go home at the end of the season and never come down here. We have so much to offer down here with our outdoor lifestyle such as surfing, fishing, mountain biking, and bushwalking and we know it appeals to that demographic so if we can offer them a reason to come here, who knows, they might like it and stay around. We have got plenty of jobs here and we are hoping to build this in to annual event so that we can take advantage of the seasonal movement of workers. This could really work for both areas, we are like the Ying to the Snowy Mountains Yang “.
The Thaw Festival is on the October long weekend from 1-3 October and the weekend after the Wanderer Festival. For more information about the Thaw Festival head to the Our Merimbula website or follow them on Socials @thawmerimbula.
