Most events were sold out and cellar door sales increased at this year’s Orange Wine Festival.
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The festival ran from October 13 to 22, and Orange Region Vignerons Association (ORVA) president Justin Jarrett said a lot of the credit went to ORVA members and volunteers at the various events.
“It’s just fantastic, nearly every event has been sold out, we’ve had such positive feedback as always, there’s areas to improve but there’s been a really good vibe to it,” Mr Jarrett said.
“Certainly everything that ORVA has done has been fully booked and most of the winery events sold out as well.
Orange Wine Festival organiser Charlotte Gundry was also pleased that some events that were introduced last year had a better reception this year.
Ms Gundry said the night markets, one of the festival’s most popular events drew a good sized crowd and the weather cleared after 24 hours of rain and drizzle.
“It wasn’t soggy underfoot and people who came and enjoyed the event had a great night,” she said.
“We usually get about 30 to 35 per cent [visitors] in total as a portion of the crowd, we monitor post codes at the glass tent.
“I think there were quite a few people in town [on Friday night] who were in town for activities on the weekend.”
Among the popular events this weekend was Wine in the Vines which saw people taken by bus to various vineyards on Saturday.
“There were 100 people on the waiting list for Wine in the Vines, I was receiving phone calls on Saturday morning for people wanting tickets,” Ms Gundry said.
She said she half expected a few people to drop out last minute but everyone turned up on time.
For the second year, this year the Vino Velo, a wine tasting bike ride was reintroduced for the second year and although the mid-week ride was cancelled there were 25 participants signed up on Sunday morning.
This year the Vino Express, was also sold out and Ms Gundry said there would have been enough people on the waiting list to cater for an extra carriage.
“They’ve all had a great time, the weather has been amazing and they’ve embraced most of the experiences,” she said.
She said there was also great feedback from the Union Bank wine masterclass and food pairing which replaced Wine Central.