The Curated Plate 2026

Global flavours, Sunshine Coast produce

Project

The Curated Plate 2026 – marketing, PR and communications

Services

Media relations
Social media
Paid media partnerships
EDMs
Content production
Industry engagement

Client

Sunshine Coast Council

In its second year with us, The Curated Plate took Sri Lankan fire cooking, Greek village feasts and a Filipino kitchen takeover and anchored every plate in Sunshine Coast ingredients. Around 50 events ran from Kings Beach to Kenilworth, drawing locals and visitors to corners of the region many had never explored.

At a glance...

event attendances across 50+ events

pieces of earned media coverage, with a potential reach of 6.34 million

views across Facebook and Instagram

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of attendees satisfied or very satisfied with food quality

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The brief

The Curated Plate is Sunshine Coast Council’s food festival, built around local chefs, growers, fishers and makers rather than flown-in celebrity names. After a record 2025, the 2026 festival needed to keep that local-first story fresh and give people a new reason to come. The festival also had a later start than 2025, which meant a shorter runway to build awareness and sell tickets. With no pre-festival media famil this year, the campaign had to work harder through media partners, social and the festival’s own database

What we did

A story with a new layer

We built on the local-first message of 2025 with a simple idea: global flavours, local produce. Diversity meant cuisine, culture and place, so the program became a reason to explore the region, from the coast to the new Kenilworth Ember & Harvest Weekend. Festival Culinary Director Peter Kuruvita, fresh from his role as Head Judge on MasterChef Sri Lanka, opened the festival with Island Fire at Alsahwa Estate, giving the program a national hook.

A newsroom approach to media

Rather than one big launch, we drip-fed genuine news through the season – expressions of interest opening, the Island Fire reveal, the return of the Asian Food Festival in a new format, the Kenilworth weekend, each ticket release, a launch-day media call with a video news release, and the festival wrap. Every story came with imagery and quotes ready to run.

Paid partners that turn interest into tickets

Five non-exclusive media partnerships did the heavy lifting on awareness and sales, with partners including RACQ, Sitchu, News Ltd, Mix FM and Hot91 alongside local print and online titles. 77% of the budget went to reaching out-of-region travellers.

Social that shares the spotlight

Posts profiled individual events, chefs and the producers behind each menu. We filmed and photographed 15 events and sent attendees their photos the same or next day, so they could share their own experience. We cross-shared with event hosts, Visit Sunshine Coast, Council and Tourism and Events Queensland.

EDMs that move people to book

Nineteen EDMs took the warm 2025 database from interest to purchase and back to advocacy, with priority ticket access for subscribers, targeted pushes for events that needed a boost, and a thank you and survey after each event.

Support for event hosts

Many hosts are small businesses without a marketing team. Each of the 15 events we covered received its own photo gallery and reel to use long after the festival, along with regular tips, deadlines and quick answers from our team.

In their words

"The Curated Plate is such a highlight on the regional calendar because it completely flips the standard food festival concept on its head."

The results

Attendance

7,061 event attendances across 50+ events, from beach to hinterland

Earned media

137 pieces of coverage, 6.34M potential reach, split 73% local and 27% out of region

National reach

Listed across 9 ACM regional mastheads, Island Fire carried by 11 News Corp mastheads, and a 580K potential readership in Qantas Magazine

Paid partners

Featured in RACQ EDMs delivered to 879K inboxes, plus 1,068 page views of RACQ sponsored content

Social media

775K views, 9,000 interactions, 11.3K link clicks and 2,500 new followers across Facebook and Instagram

EDMs

19 sends to the festival database, 16% average open rate and 3.9% average click rate

Content

848 professional images now owned by Council, 19 videos, 15 photo galleries and 1,654 photos downloaded by attendees to share

Attendee feedback

772 surveys completed: 85% satisfied with food quality, 82% with how local produce was explained and 81% with value for money

Two years in, The Curated Plate has shown that a food festival can put local producers front and centre and still draw people from right across the country.

We’re looking forward to what 2027 brings.