The Sunshine Coast’s signature food festival, Noosa Eat & Drink Festival, will take on a new format in 2021 to adapt to the changing landscape.

Instead of taking place over four days in May, the festival will run a series of more intimate events throughout the year, starting in late 2020.

The new format has been designed by the festival team and Tourism Noosa, with the health and safety of visitors, staff and festival partners the top priority.

Tourism Noosa CEO Melanie Anderson said the decision not to hold the usual large-scale event presents an opportunity to think outside of the box.

“Planning for the annual event in May would normally be well and truly under way at this time of year for our festival team, but there is a very real reality that we may not be able to host our usual large-scale festival which attracts over 10,000 visitors across the four days,” she said.

“One of the primary goals of hosting the festival is to bring visitors to our region in a traditionally quiet time and to showcase our incredible restaurants, breweries, distilleries and producers.

“By hosting several events throughout the year, we will have more opportunities to do this, getting visitors out and about across our region.”

Festival manager Lee Huber said the team will continue working with existing festival partners, visiting chefs, local restaurants, industry groups and charities to curate the experiences.

“The change has been well received by Noosa’s new Food & Drink Tourism Advisory Group which has recently been formulated, bringing together the region’s various food and beverage groups to support and develop the industry within the Noosa region,” she said.

Details of the first event, scheduled for late 2020 will be announced shortly.