Tarong Mine are our chief sponsor and have backed the Wine & Food In The :Park ever since the Festival began in 1999. Without their support at the outset we probably wouldn't be here today - and we take our hats off to them.

In their daily business, Tarong Mine (a division of Rio Tinto Coal Australia) supply coal from their Meandu mine near Nanango to Tarong Power Station. But what many people often don't realise is that a few years ago they set aside $1.2 million to establish a public philanthropic venture called the Tarong Mine Community Development Fund.

Several times a year the directors of this Fund (who include representatives from both the company and the local community) meet to dispense grants to individuals, groups and organisations who are willing to undertake projects that will improve skills and create jobs in our region.

Many of the initiatives they've supported through the Fund over the last few years would never have gotten off the ground without their help. Yet they're making a significant difference to the lives of hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of people today.

This astonishing corporate philanthropy and far-sightedness has won Tarong Mine national acclaim (including a special award from Prime Minister John Howard in 2001).

The Peanut Company of Australia (PCA) are the largest peanut processing company in Australia and one of Kingaroy's major industries. PCA process and market the overwhelming bulk of Australia's peanut crop and they're world leaders at producing the best peanuts on the planet.

In February 2003 the company unveiled a new $1.7 million Innovation and Technical Centre and announced plans to invest a further $5 million into this project over the next three years. The new Centre will continue the ground-breaking research the company is conducting into faster-growing, longer-lasting, better-tasting and healthier peanuts for all Australians.

This year PCA are sponsoring the South Burnett Regional Culinary Cook-Off Competition for the sixth year running, assisted by the South Burnett College Of TAFE. They're helping turn it into one of the great regional cuisine cook-offs in Australia as well as a major Festival attraction in its own right!

The Queensland Department of Primary Industries plays a vital role in the South Burnett and are one of the most highly respected Government agencies in the region. Hard-working DPI staff provide invaluable (often irreplaceable!) services to our agricultural producers. This in turn makes a major contribution to both our local economy and the State's economy.

This year - in addition to all the great work they normally do - DPI staff have been working hard on creating a Gourmet Trail through the region. The South Burnett already produces many unique food products (eg: bunya nuts)  and we have a number of important new food industries developing here (eg: olives, goat meat etc) with lots of future growth potential.

The South Burnett's DPI staff won a special award from their own Department in 2001 to acknowledge the extraordinary customer service they deliver here. And we're sure everyone who's worked with them would agree this was very well merited.

The Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE is headquartered in Kingaroy and are the largest training organisation in the South Burnett.

SQIT are (amongst many other things) our region;'s major source of trained hospitality industry staff and their school of hospitality studies has lent enormous support to Wine & Food n The Park (and in particular, the PCA South Burnett Regional Culinary Cook-Off Competition) ever since it started.

We're enormously grateful for the effort that SQIT put into this aspect of the Festival, which is getting more and more popular from one year to the next.

The South Burnett Times are the publishers of the South Burnett's bi-weekly newspaper. The Times circulates right through the region from Benarkin to Bell's Bridge every Tuesday and Friday and they're the mainstay of our region's print media.

The Times are part of the Australian Provincial Newspapers group and they also publish several other newspapers (eg: The Central and North Burnett Times, the Kingaroy Mail) along with a wide variety of other useful publications (eg: The Burnett Bridal Guide, Touring The South Burnett) from their Kingaroy offices.

This year - and for the fourth year running - the South Burnett Times has become a major sponsor of the Wine & Food In The Park Festival. They've played an invaluable role in publicising our Festival and we're very pleased to have them aboard.

South Burnett Online is our region's Internet portal and was established by all of the South Burnett's councils in 1999. Over the last eight years has grown to become the largest rural portal in Queensland with an annual audience in excess of 850,000 visitors, as well as our region's trusted online face.

South Burnett Online provides live daily news, 7 day weather forecasts, our region's most comprehensive daily calendar of events, central information databases, council notices and much more for residents and visitors alike. It also operates a large number of web sites for many of our region's biggest community and private sector organisations.

This year - as they have every year since 2001 - the SBO team have donated this web site and its associated hosting costs to the Festival and provided us with very valuable publicity and assistance.

C-FM 89.1 and Heart 1071 AM are the South Burnett's s most listened-to radio stations, with approximately 26,500 people tuning in each day. Both stations broadcast right through the region from Blackbutt to Proston.

This year we're very proud to have C-FM 89.1 and Heart 1071 AM as the major radio sponsors of the Wine and Food In The Park Festival.

Heart 1071's new breakfast announcer Keith Gray and C-FM's zany promotions co-ordinator Ash T. will both be playing a big part in the 2008 Festival, and you can expect to see them on the grounds during the day and hear them on the main stage

The SBEC is a non-profit community organisation that stages major festivals in the South Burnett. It's done so ever since it was founded in 1999.

All members of the SBEC are volunteers and membership is open to anyone who wants to donate time and effort to staging major community events.

If you'd like to get involved in any SBEC event yourself as either a sponsor, an exhibitor or a vendor then please feel free to contact us about it!

Most SBEC events have now been running for several years and are very well established.

They all have high community recognition and draw large numbers of people.

This in turn creates many, many opportunities for anyone who wants to take part - and as is the case with most events of this type, first in, best dressed!

You can contact the SBEC through any of these people: