Dungog’s first festival of film and entertainment was a big success for the town, for tourists and for culture, director Lex Lindsay said yesterday.
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It had also worked out financially.
Mr Lindsay was speaking as the four-day festival, attracted about 3000 people to the town, was drawing to a close yesterday afternoon.
“Dungog’s town’s first ever festival is a portent of bigger and greater festivals to come,” Mr Lindsay said.
“We called on the community to contribute to these events and their response has been fantastic. This was a combination of various community events and those from our program.
“The streets were covered in balloons and there were decorations on all the buildings.
“Both culturally and financially it has achieved its aims and we are more than happy with what has been done.”
This was despite some bad weather that dampened a few events.
“We are still evaluating the results, but in future we need to look at weather predictions and try to match events with weather,” Mr Lindsay said.
All the events had been well received, but he said You Am I frontman Tim Rogers in particular, who played solo at the Settlers Arms Hotel, had been a treat.
“It was great, because after an extended encore, Rogers went to the bar where he was speaking to everyone,” Mr Lindsay said.
He said Dungog was an ideal location too, with many facilities for venues that gave the festival a capacity to grow.
“All the events were within a few blocks of each other and there were markets everywhere,” he said.
“We now have to look at what worked well and what can be improved but, to me, it was great to see the way people embraced this festival.”