The expansion into Machattie Park of this year’s two key festival nights – Ignite The Night last week and Brew & Bite on Saturday – has also proved a success.

Spreading the festival nights over two park areas – along with stalls and attractions in Church and Russell streets - might make any crowd estimation little more then an educated guess, but there can be no doubting the nights’ incredible popularity.

This must be the sort of response Bathurst Regional Council was dreaming of when the winter festival was introduced in 2015, but that's not to say it can't be improved.

When the Western Advocate asked its readers for feedback through social media on Sunday, most respondents first praised the festival before suggesting some tinkering.

Of most concern were the long queues at food and beverage stands on Saturday night – and that is a valid complaint.

The winter festival is rightly being promoted as a family-friendly event and we want to see all ages coming together to celebrate our city.

But parents with young children at their feet cannot enjoy the night if they are spending 30 minutes or more lining up for their dinner – particularly when the temperature is hovering around 6 degrees.

Perhaps it's a case of the festival becoming a victim of its own success and maybe Saturday’s crowd caught some by surprise.

It's also true that the vagaries of winter weather – especially at night – can make catering preparations very difficult.

As it was, if a shower of rain that swept across the city half an hour before Saturday’s 5pm start had settled in rather than blowing away, then the final crowd might have been halved.

But this is an area that must get better if the festival is to continue to grow.

Whether it's a case of needing more food and beverage outlets or requiring those outlets to put on more staff on the night is a question for the organisers to ponder over the next 12 months.

In the meantime, though, let’s focus on the great positives of what is becoming a real highlight on Bathurst’s annual calendar.

It’s come a long, long way in three years – it’s exciting to think where it might now go in the decades to come.