Andrew Fletcher, administrator of the Bathurst Showground Land Manager met with council this week to explore ways the festival could be enhanced to include other institutions.

Mr Fletcher said the impact of COVID restrictions on the community and those volunteers groups that rely on public events for their income to fund the varied and valued work within our community has been widespread.

"One of council's major events that engages with the local community is the Winter Festival. The Winter Festival has grown year on year to a point where for it to continue to grow it needs to expand.

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"We believe the festival should be allowed to grow to a level that will make it self-sustaining regional flagship event that provides ample opportunity for everyone to enjoy the variety of winter activities," he said.

Mr Fletcher said the creation of the Winter Festival has been a great success but it has grown as much as it can in its current location.

"In the life cycle of tourism product, it is moving into the "Stagnation" cycle. This, surprisingly is a great place to be because it opens up so many opportunities of how to "rejuvenate" the festival.

"We believe there are great opportunities to grow the event into a self-sustaining major regional flagship event, expand our customer base and take our visitor satisfaction to the next level whilst engaging with the broader community.

Mr Fletcher said the rejuvenation could take many forms including enhancing and renewing elements of the festival, making it bigger and better.

"One way to grow the Festival into a major regional flagship event is to include other historic sites - such as the showground, by using the historic buildings as part of the illumination show."

He also suggested creating a self-guided walk from the Showground to the Town Square with illuminations, events and vendors along the way.

Other options include running Christmas styled evening markets stalls around the grounds and along William Street and utilising the showground as an easy to access and safe off street parking.

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