ORGANISERS have said they have found the best format for Tamworth’s annual multicultural festival and conservatively estimated 20,000 people rolled-up for the event.
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For the first time, Fiesta La Peel was hosted in the Fitzroy Street mall, spilling over into Bicentennial Park and with more stalls and nations represented than ever before.
Vendors remained busy throughout the evening with long cues snaking all over the event space.
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“We’re absolutely thrilled,” event organiser Carol Hughes told The Leader.
“It worked beautifully and we had a lot of positive comments that confirmed what we were thinking.”
She said the extra space was widely welcomed along with the “bigger, more professional stage”.
“It was the best model we’ve had yet, by far,” she said.
It was the best model we’ve had yet, by far.
- Event organiser Carol Hughes
Ms Hughes said the only change on the cards for 2019, at this stage, would be a different use of Bicentennial Park with an upgrade of the facility planned.
There was no official crowd count for the night, with five entry-exit points, Ms Hughes said it would have needed 50 volunteers to keep an accurate tally.
“The mere fact the size was slightly more than double and one point it was packed very tight, a very conservative estimate would have been 20,000,” she said.
Multicultural Tamworth’s Eddie Whitham was thoroughly impressed with this year’s event and said “it doesn’t get any better”.
“The new location was perfect,” he said.
“Last year, we were squashed in.
“Also, the people of the street participated, the restaurants, the hotel, I think they participated more than the people in Peel Street.”
Councillor and Tamworth city centre working group member Juanita Wilson said it highlighted the potential for the Fitzroy boulevard area.
She said it was a much more relaxed space for the event and some growth for Fiesta shouldn’t be out of the question.
“Maybe it could afford to have two performance areas,” Cr Wilson said.
“There’s so many avenues that could be explored and expanded, one could see how a weekend event would be a possibility.”