The first Waimate Winter Festival wrapped up yesterday.
The nine-day festival, which included over 40 individual events and activities, was a "great success", event manager Jo Sutherland said.
It was great to see the support the festival got from the community, she said.
"Clubs and organisations, businesses and retail, the ones that wanted to get amongst it, have and they’ve really enjoyed everyone supporting them."
She loved that the festival was able to bring the community together.
"The wonderful thing is it’s connected a lot of the community to new people and that was the big thing of it. It was trying to get people to try something new and meet new people. They might have found a new hobby or a new love for something."
The main attraction of the festival was the street party held on Saturday night. About 1000 people gathered in Queen St for a night of animated light shows and music.
There was a designated UV section where people could grab glow sticks and walk through, and images from around Waimate were projected on to the sides of buildings.
A selection of local bands played throughout the evening.
"We’ve got an amazing amount of talent in our community which was showcased," Mrs Sutherland said.
She was also delighted to see "over 800 people" line dancing to Waimate-born artist Kaylee Bell’s hit song Boots ’N All.
"That was a hit — that was amazing. We had the whole street up dancing."
Bell also sent through a pre-recorded message, which was played on a projector for the whole town to see.
Mrs Sutherland said she hoped the festival would become a feature of the social calendar for years to come.
"I think it’s an event that will grow."
