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Rain respite for festival lights

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Pets Vets Corner

Pets Vets Corner

The annual Festival of Lights provided a welcome boost to food and hospitality outlets in Warkworth on July 15. Organiser Murray Chapman says although it is always hard to estimate crowd numbers at events like the festival, he thought there were around 8000 to 9000 in the town and on the riverfront for the evening events.

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“I was blown away by the day,” he says. “We had wonderful winter weather and the town looked amazing with a large number of businesses lit up.

“One of my favourite parts of the festival is always seeing families and children with huge smiles on their faces enjoying the Gull Family Fun Day and the ITM Parade of Lights, and the effort that some people go to to make their vehicles/floats look amazing.”

Chapman said the lighting of the art installation in the trees across the river was undoubtedly the highlight of this year’s event.

“It is an artwork that will be there for years to come.” The sound performance takes 20 minutes and starts on the hour at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm.

“We also had massive support from our local businesses to help us run the event and this is an event run by locals, supported by local businesses for locals and also to attract people from outside of town to visit and spend money.

“One local hospo place told me that on Saturday night they had their biggest day ever.

“All the food trucks sold out and I have been told that a lot of the food places in town either sold out or had long waiting times, the cafes were busy all day.

“So, for us, that is a perfect result – lots of happy families and, hopefully, happy hospitality places.”

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