For four days, Melbourne’s Flemington racecourse comes alive with colour, fashion and food.
About 330,000 people are expected to attend the race days – Derby Day, Melbourne Cup, Oaks Day and Stakes Day – to experience the biggest event on the racing calendar.
Some will spend their day on a picnic rug, others along the mounting yards and those keen on a punt might be found at the betting ring.
Then there are the racegoers lucky enough to be inside the exclusive Birdcage enclosure..
Aside from sipping on about 10,000 bottles of champagne, they’ll be able to sample from menus covering every corner of the globe.
For guests with a taste for German cuisine, chef Tony Cimmino spent eight months designing his unique take on schnitzel, sauerkraut and strudel.
“There is a lot of meat on the menu,” he says. “But we’ve also got a lot of lighter options as well…. [like] kartoffelpuffer, which is a German potato pancake.”
Another European nation also features prominently.
Italian-born, Melbourne-based chef Paolo Masciopinto took inspiration from his hometown for his signature beetroot tagliatelle dish.
“I took a little bit of northern Italian food and brought it here to Melbourne and added a little bit of Melbourne as well,” he says.
Landscape designer Jamie Durie has dreamed up an edible vertical garden that guests can nibble on while watching the action on the track.
Lots of cheese was included in the antipasti provided a taste of Italy
“You’ve got oregano, you’ve got basil, you’ve got parsley, spearmint, we’ve even got chocolate mint, which is quite amazing,”he says.
When it comes to the carnival, food and fashion go hand in hand and no matter where you spend the day, the stakes are high for racegoers keen to dress the part.
Fashion blogger Nicole Warne, whose “GaryPepperGirl” Instagram account boasts one million followers, says the spring racing carnival is one of the world’s biggest fashion events.
“It’s just so iconic to Australia,” she says. “It’s a really big moment in the Australian fashion calendar and it’s so exciting because I can actually share that with my global audience.”
And the stylish event is also a boost to the state’s bottom line – the Victorian government says the carnival pumps more than $620 million into the local economy.
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