GREAT weather, great atmosphere and a few small changes helped make Ignite the Night a huge success on Saturday.
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The opening affair for the Bathurst Winter Festival seemingly went off without a hitch and managed to attract around 10,000 patrons across the event.
Mayor Graeme Hanger said the weather made for a much better event this year, as it wasn't as cold as has been seen in previous years and there was no rain.
Also making the event better for patrons was the new layout for Ignite the Night, which expanded to include one block of Keppel Street.
Instead of all the food being contained to Church Street, as has been the case previously, the majority of the food vendors were on Keppel Street and fronted Machattie Park.
A small handful of food stalls with kid-friendly options remained in Church Street.
The changes were designed to combat some of the congestion seen around the food stalls in previous years and Cr Hanger said the feedback was positive.
"That worked well. People commented that they had more room to walk around and were not bumping into each other," he said.
Over on Russell Street, the winter playground continued to be a popular attraction for people.
Except for one session, the last one, all of the ice skating sessions after 6pm were fully booked out several days before Ignite the Night.
Cr Hanger said the ferris wheel, two-storey carousel and rides in church street were also popular, with 7000 tickets sold for Saturday.
With Ignite the Night ticked off, council's attention will turn to smaller events coming up this week before the second major night, Brew and Bite.
These include a kids day on Wednesday, torchlight tours at the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum on Thursday and the LiveBetter All Abilities Day on Friday.
A full program of events can be found on the Bathurst Winter Festival website.
Cr Hanger said council was pleased to offer more activities across the school holidays through the festival.
