Last year’s inaugural Multicultural Cherry Fiesta has completed a hat trick of awards in 2026, celebrating its successful inclusion to the annual National Cherry Festival celebrations in Young. The win came at the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Tidy Towns Sustainability Awards in Orange last week, winning the Community Spirit & Inclusion award for their population category. The event came about through collaboration between council and the Young and District Multicultural Association, who helped secure funding and coordinate the evening. Hilltops Council acting general manager Sarah Karaitiana was on hand to accept the award, and said the event was a showcase of all the region represents. “The idea behind it was to be able to celebrate our multicultural heritage and the multicultural influence on the cherry industry, but also on agriculture in general in the Hilltops region,” Ms Karaitiana said. “To be able to do that and involve so many different nationalities and cultures made it a really great event. “It’s not as affordable for people to go out and enjoy social events, so it’s great to have an event that's free, so people can come along and enjoy participating and all the entertainment and offerings of the festival.” The Tidy Towns award joins the RH Dougherty Events and Communications Award win the Fiesta received for Innovation in Special Events during Local Government Week. In the project case study for this noted the Fiesta contributed to an 8 per cent rise in visitor expenditure on the previous year’s event. Hilltops was also recognised at the NSW Local Government Excellence Awards in the Festivals and Community Events category with a population under 50,000. The second iteration of the Fiesta will be held on Friday 4 December, kicking off the Cherry Festival weekend in style with food, entertainment and a fireworks finale.
