From Hibernation to Celebration

For ten days every July, the Margaret River Region comes alive as venues from Busselton to Margaret River open their doors with something a little special for the Cabin Fever Festival.  

But Cabin Fever isn’t just a festival — it’s a chance for our community to lean into winter. To leave hibernation, come together and celebrate everything we do best: incredible produce, bold local wine and beer, and the great talents among us.  

 Cabin Fever makes winter feel warm, social and full of life. 

Host Kellie Tannock talks to event organiser, Erin Molloy, about Cabin Fever's 10th anniversary and truffle farmer, Ben Warner who has created two special events to get his guests putting on their wellington boots for some winter fun.

Cabin Fever – Margaret River Region winter festival

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This show was recorded at RMR 101.9FM, Margaret River Region.

Transcript

Kellie Tannock 0:01

Welcome to Cape's Conversations, sharing the stories that make the Margaret River region a truly special place to live and visit. Hello, I'm Kelly Tannock. For 10 days, every July, our region comes alive as venues from Bustleton to Margaret River open their doors with something a little special for the Cabin Fever Festival. But Cabin Fever isn't just a festival, it's a chance for our community to lean into winter, to leave hibernation, come together and celebrate everything we do best: incredible produce, bold local wine and beer, and the great talents among us. Cabin Fever makes winter feel warm, social, and full of life. This year, 2026, marks ten years of this fun winter festival, and organiser Erin Malloy has been there since day one. Erin, welcome to CAFES Conversations. Thank you. Erin, where did the whole Cabin Fever idea come from?

Erin Molloy 0:51

It came from the region's Food and Wine Promotional Plan. So after serving the region, Southwest Development Commission, the Margaret River Busslton Tourism Association, AMR Shire and the City Busselton all came together to come up with something to drive business in in the middle of winter. And they put out to tender after putting together a really small pot of funding to some businesses across Western Australia to pitch for what they would do with this winter festival. And there was a name, Cabin Feaver, that came from Mr. Matt Lewis that was put as a suggested title. And my then business partner, Brianna and I pitched under Creative Corner back then and won that tender, and off we went to bring it up and develop it.

Kellie Tannock 1:27

But how did you even start with an idea like that? Where did you start?

Erin Molloy 1:30

We were given some criteria of some suggested timings, and it was something that we needed to include as many businesses as possible. It was culinary, food and wine, tourism, incorporating all of those experiences. It had to be intrinsically Margaret River. So we started with a pretty core set of values that we wanted to start with as well that aligned with that pitch and kind of then started going out to businesses and um seeing if they wanted to get involved with this idea. We wanted businesses to run their own events and we wanted to make sure there was as much money going back into those businesses as possible. So that was the structure that we set up. And so then we decided to chat to different businesses to see if they would like to create something. And uh that first year of the program came together and it's grown ever since.

Kellie Tannock 2:12

And back then I think Margaret River was probably the place that people thought about as the summer destination. And how did you have to look at things very differently?

Erin Molloy 2:20

So Bri and I were avid travellers, and we always thought that look, if people in London go and didn't go out because it was raining, no one would ever go out. So uh we need to create fun things here that we want to go do and just encourage people to embrace winter and get out and about despite the weather. So we had some pretty tongue-in-cheek taglines to begin with, like grab winter by the balls and give winter the middle finger, which we were really surprised and delighted by some of the more refined venues in town getting behind. We really just encouraged people to pull on their wellies, bring the umbrella and get out and enjoy winter. So that's what's happened, and I think it's just grown in in droves ever since then, because people do want something to do down here, and some of the best things you can do in the region are during winter, like bonfires and red wine and good parties.

Kellie Tannock 3:06

So you're sort of dealing with all those pain points of winter and turning them into positives.

Erin Molloy 3:10

Yeah, just taking them straight on, really.

Kellie Tannock 3:12

Yeah, fantastic. I do remember one of your great lines, which was break up with your doona. I really like that one.

Erin Molloy 3:17

Yes, and I think the year after COVID we had hibernation was so 2020.

Kellie Tannock 3:22

Oh, that worked well. So, how has the festival evolved over the years since um you started 10 years ago?

Erin Molloy 3:27

It's always been about bringing the region together and the bit the region's businesses. So that's something that's stayed the same. So there's been many of the same businesses involved. New ones come and go each year, but at the core of it, it's always bringing experiences that showcase the region. People can come any time of the year and experience some of these experiences, but it's a bit of a hook as a as a one-off to come and experience it during having fever. After COVID, we were probably one of the first festivals back in 2020 in July. So we did a weekender that was socially distanced. Um we went digital before that. We've had uh Michelin chefs like Rishi Nalindra um come across from Singapore, we've had National Touring Acts come across. So each year, that's kind of a various evolution of the festival that kind of stays the same, I guess, at its at its core.

Kellie Tannock 4:13

So you know, one end you've got these high-end chefs, at the other end, you've got the cheese toasty battle.

Erin Molloy 4:18

Yes, so that's probably one of the longest-running events along with Blazing Brews. So we've got the Cheese Toastie Battle back again this year, and I think it's probably one of the first events to sell out every year, and it's just so much fun. Five different toastie chefs come, they put their best toastie forward, and uh it's kind of like a blind tasting. So everyone that buys a ticket gets a sample of each toastie, and there's a different coloured toothpick in each one. And so at the end, we go around and collect everyone's favourite, and we count up the winners or count out the numbers, and whoever's got the most wins, and we find out who wins at the end, and they become the cheese toastie champion, basically. So it's a bit of friendly rivalry.

Kellie Tannock 4:52

Have you noticed any trends in what people gravitate towards as the events that become really popular?

Erin Molloy 4:57

It's generally a bit of a mix, to be honest. So things like the toastie battle that fly out the door. I think it's a lot of fun and it's obviously a cheaper ticket price, so people will tend to go. There's a lot of out-of-town sales to that event as well, which is great. I'm sitting next to Ben right here. He's got the two truffle hunt events, um, which the first one's already sold out, and I think feedback from last year's event was so positive that I think people like to get out and do something a bit different on the programme. So we were really stoked last year when Ben came to us with that concept because it was showcasing something really cool in the region that's not just sitting sitting and eating, it's getting out in winter again and trying something that's an awesome piece of produce. We always love seeing like music, some of the breweries get involved, but I think there's just a broad mix of things that happen.

Kellie Tannock 5:38

And Cabin Fever Festival is really now a key event on the Margaret River regional calendar. Let's talk numbers. How many attend and what's the mix of visitors and locals do you think?

Erin Molloy 5:48

So we get roughly 7,000 to 8,000 attendances each year. It's around 40 to 45% out-of-region visitors, so overnight visitors, and close to half locals. So we've always tried to structure it and pitch it that way as well, because we want to make sure that the locals want to come and feel like they can be involved, and it is for the locals as much as it is for visitors, but obviously they're out of region people come and spend a bit more money when they're here, so that's part of the purpose of that.

Kellie Tannock 6:13

So, what sort of economic contribution does it make to the region?

Erin Molloy 6:16

What most people wouldn't know is that 100% of the ticket sale revenue goes back to the local businesses running the events. So businesses pay a small marketing fee to be involved on a scaled level, and then they retain all of the ticket sale revenue. So I think I've got some stats here that over the past uh 10 years, so from 2017 to 2025, we've welcomed over 56,000 attendances over those 10 years. Um there's been nearly 1.8 million dollars in ticket sale revenue directly back to local businesses, and that's across 470 events over that period of time. So that's just ticket sale revenue alone. That's not counting. People spending on accommodation, what they're spending while they're in the region, that's purely just ticket sales. So it's got a pretty good impact economically for the region in a relatively quiet period. Absolutely.

Kellie Tannock 7:04

Oh, that's terrific news. Cabin Fever isn't just about venue events though, there's also the town takeover. Broadly, what is town takeover about?

Erin Molloy 7:12

Town takeovers is about two things really. Because the region's so large and the festival spans the whole region, and a lot of these businesses are outside of the main town centres as well. We want people to feel like when they're coming into these different town centres that something's actually happening. There's a bit of buzz happening for the festival. So it's getting a lot of the main street businesses in involved in the festival and creating a bit of that buzz, having branding and doing something small to be part of it. So the other reason is that the program can only get so big. So we're you know already up to 40 to 50 events. We don't want events to cannibalize each other. Um, so it's another easy way for businesses to get involved and run something without having the burden of running an event as well, and they can do something simple like a Cabin Fever Special or a Happy Hour and do something that encourages people to visit that venue, spend a bit of money and do something easily. So we've got a whole kind of separate marketing campaign around that, but it's basically to kind of encourage more business or businesses and create a bit of buzz around town as well.

Kellie Tannock 8:08

That is a lot of events to be organising every year for 10 years, Erin Molloy. How do you stay inspired? What keeps you doing this?

Erin Molloy 8:17

Madness. I feel really lucky to live and work with everybody in this region. And I work across Western Australia and the Margs region is very special. I think it's a really collaborative region, and everyone gets excited about what they're doing. I really love every year all the businesses. Getting excited about the events that they they might run, um, getting to workshop ideas with everyone, getting around to visit everyone. It's that's inspiring in itself and just the joy of being on work with everyone. Just traveling and seeing what's happening elsewhere and bringing those ideas back here and kind of pitching them and working workshopping modes with businesses is also fun. Um so it's kind of cool to see new things activated in Margaret River as well, because we live down here. Sometimes it's nice to bring new things here too. And then we've got a really awesome fan base from across Australia, really, as well, and particularly down here in Perth. So we get really excited by how excited everyone else gets from Cabin Fever. So it's kind of hard not to get the bug and get expired inspired.

Kellie Tannock 9:13

Well said, Erin, that's terrific, and we're really lucky to have you at the helm, I think. This is Cape's Conversations. I'm Kellie Tannock, and my big thanks to Erin Molloy for sharing more about our region's winter festival, Cabin Fever. Next up, we'll hear from a business which is hosting not one, but two Cabin Fever events. But first, some songs for winter, fire and rainy days. This is Ellie Goulding with Burn.

Speaker 3 10:34 Speaker 14:34

You're listening to RMR 101.9, Sound Waves Cape to Cape.

Kellie Tannock 14:40

That was Burn by Ellie Goulding. Welcome back to our Cabin Fever inspired Capes Conversations, sponsored by Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association. Ben Warner is the owner of Margaret River Travel Farm, and he's opening his farm gate for the Cabin Fever program. Welcome, Ben.

Ben Warner 14:55

Thanks, Kellie.

Kellie Tannock 14:56

Now, surely Cabin Fever is tailor-made for a truffle operation. What makes this time of year so special on the farm?

Ben Warner 15:03

Winter is when it all happens. So the truffles are forming early spring. They slowly grow throughout the summer months and grow rapidly in autumn and then slow down their growth by putting on colour and aroma, and they all start to ripen between now and the end of August. So winter is uh the truffle season, and cabin fever is smack bang in the middle of winter, so it's just a match made in heaven.

Kellie Tannock 15:29

For those of us who don't know a lot about truffles, uh, can you tell us a little bit about how you know how you harvest them and you know give us a picture of what the farm looks like.

Ben Warner 15:37

We use dogs, they used to use pigs, but too many people were losing fingers. So they've gone to dogs, and we've got two beautiful Labradors that that do that job for us. They walk down the rows sniffing out the truffles which are underground. They grow on the roots of trees, and the dogs can find them. They indicate or scratch the ground and then they sit down waiting for their treat. That's our turn to reveal them. So we take a little bit of dirt off the top, we nick the top to see that the colour's there, and that's what we're looking for to know that they're ripe. And if it's ripe, we uh treat the dog and dig them up and we're away.

Kellie Tannock 16:09

Okay, what happens to them then? Do you have to keep them cold or what's the process?

Ben Warner 16:13

Yeah, we give them a good wash to make sure there's no damage and no defects, and then once we've done that, we dry them. They go in the fridge in a jar with a bit of paper towel, and we just make sure we change that paper towel daily. Uh they can last only about 10 days, that's the shelf life maximum of a truffle. So they do take a little bit of care, but it certainly is worth it.

Kellie Tannock 16:34

Can I ask the basic question? What is a truffle? Is it fungus? What is it?

Ben Warner 16:37

Yeah, it's a fungi, it's not that different to a mushroom, but a mushroom has evolved to put its cap above the ground and open that up for its spores to be dispersed by the wind. Uh the truffle has evolved underground and it needs to find a way to disperse its spore, so it builds that beautiful aroma to attract animals to come and eat it and deposit it somewhere else.

Kellie Tannock 16:58

And I guess not all of our listeners would have tried truffles or or know that distinctive aroma. How do you use them? What's the appeal?

Ben Warner 17:05

Truffles are pretty much a condiment. They go on top of food or in food. Last minute when it's not too hot, if you heat truffle, you lose the aroma. So they're really, really well suited to creamy mild flavours, cheese and things like that. Um, not so well with high acidic and really rich flavours. So a warm, creamy carbonara pasta with truffle shaved on the top just as you serve it, but that steam and that heat's gonna bring that aroma right up to you as you eat it. So that's the best way to eat truffle.

Kellie Tannock 17:35

Okay, so always at the end, not in the pot.

Ben Warner 17:37

No.

Kellie Tannock 17:38

Truffles are still a mystery to many, as we said. Are you looking to make them more accessible to everybody at these events?

Ben Warner 17:45

So that's what our brand's about. We are removing the pretension from truffle. We're making it uh available to a wider audience of people, and we're just making it a heap of fun.

Kellie Tannock 17:55

Uh so you've got a couple of events this year. Can you tell us about those? A morning, very early morning, and uh an evening event.

Ben Warner 18:01

We've got two events. We've got Hair of the Truffle Dog, which is the morning event, and we've got Food of God's Kings and Pigs, which is a bit of a sundowner. So they uh the Hair of the Truffle Dog starts at 7am, so that's when it's still dark. You're watching the sun come up with a glass of bubbles, which is a real connection to what we do. The truffles are all about the morning, it's all about the crisp, the cold, and this event gives you a chance to really connect with what the truffle farmer experiences. Uh there's wine pairing with five courses of truffle laden food delivered by Supper Road. We have DJs to keep you warm while you stand around fires, and we go for a truffle hunt led by our dogs, Albi and Taz, and we dig up fresh truffle from the ground while we're there. The afternoon event is very similar. We have Rue taking care of the music and LS merchants delivering the wines.

Kellie Tannock 18:54

So you're partnering with Supper Road, Skigh Wines and LS Merchant. How important is it for you to be part of something that brings so many local businesses together in winter?

Ben Warner 19:02

Everything we do is about collaboration. We try to do it in every aspect of our business. I think we do it pretty well. But working with people like Supper Road, you know, these guys are just the Rolls Royce of what they do in this region. They take care of absolutely everything. They're an absolute pleasure to work with and they make our life so much easier. And the results, the food you get, is incredible.

Kellie Tannock 19:25

So, what does Cabin Fever mean for producers like you in terms of connecting with locals and visitors and boosting the profile of what you do?

Ben Warner 19:32

The beauty of Cabin Fever is that it's the producers that uh design the events. We're fully supported by the team at Cabin Fever, but their the concept is ours and it really lets people connect with the message and our brand. Last year's Cabin Fever attracted audience from an area we weren't really sure we didn't think we were going to get. We were thinking we were gonna get interstate or Perth visitors, but most of our visitors were from close to home, regional. Um we're talking Donnie Brooke, Busselton, and those kind of areas. So a big, big, big surprise. We're pulling out these real proper foodies from places we didn't expect, and that's really helped push our brand and our and our business into those other regions.

Kellie Tannock 20:15

Well, Cabin Fever, and your event really is encouraging people to get out and explore the region in winter and at the coldest part of the day in in some cases. What do you hope visitors will take away after spending time at the truffle farm?

Ben Warner 20:27

Uh look, so life in the southwest is all about adapting. You know, in the summer, we go out and we play, but in the winter it's time to change a pace. Put on your Uggies, chuck on a hoodie,, or maybe a glass of red wine, and of course cover everything in truffle. So we're able to show people how it is to live this way. You don't fight the seasons, you adapt and you work with it. And um that's really, really fun to we were able to share that with people in a really fun way with what we do.

Kellie Tannock 20:56

Thanks so much, Ben. My thanks to Ben Warner, who with his wife Charmaine owns and operates Margaret River Truffle Farm. And as Erin mentioned, even if you're not heading to a specific cabin fever event, you can still be part of the buzz by visiting one of the main street town takeover partners. Cafes, bars, and shops throughout Margaret River, Busselton, Dunsborough, Witchcliffe, Cowaramup will be getting involved with winter specials, happy hours and pop-up experiences. Thanks to my guests today, Erin Molloy and Ben Warner, and thanks also to our show sponsor, Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association. This Capes Conversations, spotlighting all the things that make this region such a great place to live and visit. I'm finishing this week's episode with an aptly named song Sweater Weather. Originally by The Neighborhood, this version by Gaulin and Julian Peretta gives the song some festival vibes. Have a great week, everyone.

Speaker 2 21:56