THE city’s third Winter Festival was another resounding success, with its attractions drawing thousands of people to Bathurst and showcasing what the city has to offer.
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Mayor of Bathurst, Graeme Hanger, said there were three main reasons why the festival was so successful.
“The planning and execution of the event by event staff at Bathurst Regional Council is incredible.
“I mean what would we change to make it better? There’s not much you could do, because it’s so good.
“If you asked me if I would change anything about it I’d say ‘no’.
“The concept of the carousel was amazing, and overall there were 30,000 tickets sold between the carousel and Ferris Wheel,” he said.
Another key factor in its success was the festival’s ability to engage the community.
“To see the enjoyment and excitement on people faces; that people are outside, in the middle of winter in the school holidays on a Thursday night or Saturday night, and have smiles on their faces, it’s brilliant.”
Cr Hanger said special evenings like Ignite the Night, which had it’s own edible alley of regionally sourced food and beverages, plus Brew and Bite which boasted twilight markets, local food, wine and craft beers, only added to the ambiance of the event.
The third reason Cr Hanger said the festival was so successful this year was the weather.
“I mean how blessed were we, we got a bit of drizzle on Friday night, but other than that it was brilliant, we couldn’t have asked for better.”
Cr Hanger said the festival was not only enjoyed by Bathurstians, but thousands of people from across the region and the state.
“Before the festival opened council had sold somewhere in the vicinity of 7,000 tickets on line, and one third of the people buying them were outside the 2795 postcode,” he said.
One family out of the 2795 postcode were Caroline Perry and her daughter Rebecca, who along with their family came from Sydney to Bathurst to be part of the Winter Festival.
Ms Perry said the family, decided to come after after seeing the Winter Festival on Facebook.
“A friend of ours likes the page on Face Book so we decided to come up for the weekend.
“We went on the Ferris Wheel last night (Saturday) and came back to skate today.”
Ms Perry also said the family went and had a look at the light show, and thoroughly enjoyed their time in the city.
“We might come back next year, it was really nice, we had a great time,” she said.
Her daughter, Rebecca, said the ice skating was fun.
“We had an ice rink at Bondi, but it melted because it got too hot,” she said.
