April 1st, 2023Celebrating The Spud: Trentham gets set for Spudfest

Volunteering to help out with staging The Great Trentham Spudfest has been a great way to make new friends and connect with the community for tree changer Belinda Tynan.
Belinda and her household shifted to Trentham from Melbourne about two years
ago and Belinda, who works in education as a consultant with Deloitte, was keen to
make connections with her new hometown.

So she signed on as a volunteer with the Spudfest committee and volunteered to
help stage the annual feature for the first time last year. She enjoyed that experience
so much that this time around she’s now serving as the committee’s coordinator of
volunteers as the town gets set to host an expanded version of the festival on May 6.
“Last year it was only in Market Street but this time we’re expanding into High
Street as well,” Belinda says. “We’ve got more entertainers, more vendors, more
makers from around the region, a classic car display.”
The festival celebrates the humble, and not-so-humble spud, in all its glory and
multitude of culinary guises, and also celebrates the local farmers who grow them. It’s
an important fundraiser for the community.
“It’s a great chance to buy spuds from the local growers including some lesser-
known and unique varieties,” Belinda says.
Spudfest entry is free but a gold coin donation is invited and appreciated, with all
proceeds raised going back into the community.
“The volunteers really make the event happen and we’ve already got a healthy
number of old and new volunteers but we could do with some more,” Belinda says.
“Volunteers do a whole mixture of things from collecting the gold coins, to
supervising the kids’ area, to helping people on and off our horse and cart, to traffic
management. We’ve also got our Burly Brigade which is our volunteers, both men
and women, who help with set up and pack down.”
The volunteers enjoy a great sense of community themselves with a special little
wrap-up session and barbecue after the event.
Anyone who thinks they may be able offer a bit of time as a volunteer can get in
contact now by emailing Belinda at belindatynan2@gmail.com