Festival hub makes a splash

With water the theme for Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2014, where better to have the festival hub than right by the Yarra River at Queensbridge Square?

The hub is dubbed ''The Immersery'', designed by HASSELL design studio, with Melbourne Water helping to integrate rain gardens in the three-tiered structure. Big-name chefs - including Jesse Gerner, of Bomba and Anada; Daniel Wilson, of Huxtable; Adam Liston, of Borrowed Space; and Florent Gerardin, of Silo - will create the menu for the festival's duration, inspired by the water's three states of solid, liquid and gas.

Tickets to the festival's program of more than 200 events go on sale on December 3, when there will also be a copy of the Festival Guide in The Age.