But that hasn’t been possible in 2020 with COVID-19 almost bringing a complete stop to almost every event on the Echuca-Moama calendar.
For Ms Wegener personally, none was bigger than Pop & Pour.
No matter how long the EM Events director waited before deciding, she knew it was going to be a heartbreaking one.
“You never want to have to cancel an event you have been working so hard towards,” she said.
“Once the border was closed it was almost the final nail in the coffin. More than 50 per cent of our patronage comes from Victoria and we couldn’t afford to lose that many people.
“It was a real shame for our venues and producers because Pop & Pour is the one day where they can show off what they’re really about.”
In the end, Ms Wegener’s mind was made up for her.
Restrictions across NSW and Victoria meant it was almost impossible to recreate the event of the past.
And that’s why she chose to leave the cork in the Pop & Pour bottle.
“The final decision came down to maintaining the integrity of the event,” Ms Wegener said.
“We didn’t want to host the event then have our visitors have a poor experience. If we were to do that it might have meant we could have lost them.
“We looked at ways of modifying the event but with everything constantly changing it became too much.”
The decision to cancel the event came in July after months of what Ms Wegener described as “hanging on”.
“We tried to leave it as long as we could,” she said.
“I was involved in a number of conferences with events from around Australia to see if there were ways we could get up and running.
“Seeing the different things people were trying was extremely interesting. One of the benefits of this year has been some of the networking I’ve been able to do.
“It has given me a chance learn from other events in town, which I’ve really appreciated.”
Despite all the doom and gloom 2020 brought, everything is starting to look up for events including for Pop & Pour in 2021, and Ms Wegener is committed to hosting a COVID-safe event.
“Planning is well and truly under way,” she said.
“We were anticipating having about 3500 people attend (in 2020) and we’d like to keep it around that figure in 2021.
“We still don’t know what the format will look like but we’re super-excited.
“We’ve received a lot of support on social media and I’m sure that will only grow the closer the next event gets.”
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