The smooth Festival of Chocolate returns for a third year, to transform The Rocks into a chocoholic’s paradise across two huge days, on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September.

Set against the backdrop of the world’s most beautiful harbour, the smooth Festival of Chocolate will yet again feature the Callebaut Test Kitchen, the smooth Stars Stage and the Chocolatiers’ Quarters with a selection of new additions including the Lindt Lounge and the Bilpin Cider Garden Bar.

Tony Thomas, NOVA Entertainment’s chief marketing and digital officer said, “The smooth Festival of Chocolate is a great example of the power of the smoothfm brand footprint. Each year the experience for our brand partners and the Sydney public has grown to now become one of the biggest lifestyle events on the calendar.”

This September the smooth Festival of Chocolate, which attracted 112,000 people last year, will partner with master chocolatiers Lindt, who have signed on as the events major sponsor in conjunction with Property NSW.

Lindt will present The Lindt Lounge on Tallawolodah Place, the newly named lawn in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, and will feature a pop up patisserie with three exclusive new éclair flavours, salted caramel, hazelnut and chocolate, along with an interactive experience for festival-goers which will be revealed closer to the festiva .

Returning partners Callebaut and Knebel Kitchens will again host the test kitchen featuring live demonstrations from some of Sydney’s best dessert chefs including leading patissier and owner of Black Star Pastry, Christopher Thé, Carlos Heng of Mak Mak Macarons and award winning French patissier, Jean Michel Raynaud from La Renaissance Patisserie.

The festival has also attracted the attention of the Seven Network who have signed on as a major sponsor in conjunction with their new show ‘Zumbo’s Just Desserts’. Zumbo Patisserie will return as an exhibitor while top pastry chef and Adriano Zumbo’s assistant on the show, Gigi Falanga, will demonstrate her finesse and creative dessert skills in the Callebaut Test Kitchen.

Australia’s leading food, wine and travel magazine, Gourmet Traveller has come on board as a major media partner with the magazine’s Food Editor, Emma Knowles also confirmed to do a live cooking demonstration in the Callebaut Test Kitchen.

Home to the latest dessert trends, the smooth Festival of Chocolate will feature over 80 exhibitors including returning favourites Love Dem Apples with their North American-style caramel apples, Oregano Bakery with their delectable scrolls and Black Star Pastry with their infamous Strawberry Watermelon Cake, which they have given a white chocolate twist especially for the festival. A number of new exhibitors have come on board this year including Textbox Patisserie, My Donut Box with their rainbow unicorn donuts, Paper Street Ice Cream, Junee Chocolate Licorice, Girl Made Chocolate, Original Chocowrap and their unique chocolate kebabs and KCon who will debut a new dessert experience the “Crazy Cronut Stick”.

In addition to the makers of decadent desserts, Perrier Water have signed on as the festival’s official water sponsor and Bilpin Cider, as the festival’s alcohol sponsor, will host the Bilpin Cider Garden Bar where visitors can relax by the harbour.

Located inside the Cargo Hall of the Overseas Passenger Terminal, the Chocolatiers’ Quarters will house artisan chocolatiers showcasing their finest products. The highly respected pastry chef Dean Gibson will be creating a Halloween themed festival showpiece and up-and-coming baker Joanne Smith from Baked by Joanne will present an impressive array of cakes including her signature Nutella Cake.

In the week leading up to the festival, accommodation and event partner the InterContinental Sydney, will showcase an artwork-in-progress by artist James Patrick who will be creating a piece of art using chocolate and Lindt wrappers. James will be constructing the artwork in Sotheby’s gallery in the foyer of the InterContinental Sydney, with the final art piece displayed in the Chocolatiers’ Quarters across the weekend of the festival.

The mouth-watering content from this year’s festival will be featured on smoothfm’s all new website offering www.smooth.com.au.