Co-convener Nick Orbell said "a lot of water" was drunk instead.
"The sugar-free thing was potentially a bit of a risk. ‘‘To the best of my knowledge no-one was unhappy they couldn’t buy a fizzy drink.
"At one stage in the morning the tent that was looked after by [primary health organisation] WellSouth and the [Southern] DHB was one of the busiest tents. People were fascinated with the information they had [about sugar]," he said.
He hoped other festivals would consider adopting the measure.
"It wasn’t about not enjoying treats, a festival’s a time for treat food, but there’s no need to really make it excessive."
"We’ve been watching weather forecasts for the last 10 days aware that we were probably in for rain today and we didn’t have any really; a bit of light drizzle was hardly enough to dampen things. I think we were pretty lucky."
Some vendors had told him it had been their best South Dunedin festival "in terms of their own performance".
He thanked volunteers, in particular the community group Rock Solid for logistical help. Organisers had responded to increased interest from performers by creating a second stage.
"There was dance and cultural groups performing throughout the day and invariably with each new performance group there’d be a wave of new visitors coming to the festival with their associates.
"All those people giving so much time just to put on a show for us all in South Dunedin, it was great."
The usually annual event was not held last year.
