The Candelo Village Festival has wrapped for another year, after a weekend of celebrating the creativity and skills that make the town strong.
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Festival director Sam Martin said the event brought money into the town that boosted businesses's coffers before winter started.
"I think the aim of the festival is to connect people in our town together," he said.
"If we can form relationships in town we're building a strong sense of community in our village."
The weekend village passes sold out as did the Friday night concert in the hall, which featured local musical talents as well as The Figmentz performing a special 50 Years Since Woodstock show.
The next two days saw a long line of entertainment from the likes of Benny Walker and Australian legend Mic Conway to various activities such as a book launch with Ailsa Wild and a forum on gender diversity in the music industry with band This Way North, to workshops on different topics such as cultural burning and fermenting vegetables and drinks.
While attendance was down from the last festival, Mr Martin said "numbers aren't part of the festival".
"I'm happy we provided the event and gave artists opportunities to show their music to the village," he said.
The festival did not quite make its budget this year and was likely to run at a loss, he said, but in the long-term it was nothing to worry about and overall he was happy with how this festival went.
"If you look at a 10-year period we're still in front in terms of running the event," he said.
"From the outset I said this would be a very ambitious budget.
"It's been fantastic bringing in all these national artists and that's a large part of the budget."
While the festival's bar and food income was up from the last event, the proceeds were to be shared with the town's bowling club.
For the next festival Mr Martin said the committee would look at programming a higher percentage of local musicians as well as increasing the number of village passes sold.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
