The event went on sale at 10am, with 525 tickets released to the public in seven timeslots.

FOOD Week Association president James Sweetapple said the time allowed to enter purchasers’ contact and credit card details meant the tickets were not paid for until closer to 10.30am.

“But within three minutes, they were all reserved,” he said.

“This is possibly the fastest it’s sold, we are thrilled with how it went – it shows the popularity of Orange FOOD Week and this particular event.”

Mr Sweetapple said it was a busy few minutes, marking the timeslots as sold out as bookings were made and fielding phone calls.

“They were checking the computer was working and had it really sold out,” he said.

“The website handled the traffic, we had no issues, which is really pleasing.”

Ticket sales were limited to two a booking.

“We wanted to share it and have as many different people come rather than have a tour company book a thousand tickets and onsell them at a profit,” Mr Sweetapple said.

“We didn’t want scalping happening.”

This year’s Forage is a 3.6-kilometre walk starting at Balmoral Vineyard, then through Koomooloo Vineyard and finally North Face Vineyard.

Walkers enjoy views of Mount Canobolas with wine tastings and tasty plates provided every 500 metres.

It will welcome 1500 people – 1000 tickets were released to Friends of FOOD members a month ago, but Mr Sweetapple said they were not all taken up and encouraged people to become members.

“It gives you an advantage in booking not only Forage tickets, but all tickets,” he said.

“We also put out a newsletter on the producers and why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

There is a waiting list for re-sold tickets to Forage and the FOOD Train from Sydney, but Mr Sweetapple said even if people had missed out, there were plenty of spaces available in other events during the week and there was still much still to organise in the festival lead-up.

The 100-mile Dinner is still on sale, the FOOD Week Night Market and Sunday Producers Market are open to the public for a gold coin and individual producers and wineries will host their own events.

The hard copy program is now available and to access the online version,  visit http://orangefoodweek.com.au/events/

FOOD Week runs from March 31 until April 9.