Orange Wine Festival Night Market launches a month of celebrations

Orange Wine Festival co-organiser Jane Arnott said she did not have the final figures yet but about 2000 pre-booked tickets were sold and another 1500 were estimated to have paid at the gates.

"It was a really great night, the crowds came out," Mrs Arnott said.

"We had some very long queues coming in but we got them in pretty quickly then they enjoyed tasting great wine and food of Orange from about 45 stalls so we were really excited to see the public and visitors supporting our local wineries and food businesses.

"It was just a really, a good feel market.

"The park was pretty crowded and the children were dancing and there were lots of picnic rugs and just a really good atmosphere."

This year for the first time doubt stalls were introduced with food and wineries partnering up so people could order something to eat and a wine in one transaction.

"That concept worked really well and I think the audience appreciated it and certainly the wine and food producers did a great job of pairing up," Mrs Arnott said.

"I think the concept worked really well and it's something that we will look to do again."

Last year's Wine Festival Night Market was postponed due to the COVID pandemic but the wine growers were associated with a small night market in December.

"It was a great market as well but this one was certainly bigger and much more of a response and more stalls and more getting back to where we want to be," Mrs Arnott said.

This year's market was held at the beginning of the festival which is running for the entire month of October for the first time this year.

"People love the night market whenever it's held ... but I think it's an opportunity to showcase our region and our wines at the beginning of the month and just give people some local knowledge and motivation to explore for the rest of the month," Mrs Arnott said.

"I think it's a good thing to kick off with the night market, the only thing I would love if in the future is if we could have daylight savings in place but that's not always going to be possible but we had plenty of lighting and certainly it was well supported."

This week and the coming weekend will have a focus on events and picnic days for locals and their friends and families.

"Next weekend is very high-demand on accommodation with the Bathurst races on so we tried to encourage activities for locals and also for visiting family and friends," Mrs Arnott said.

"We know they are accommodated in people's houses and they can go out and enjoy the cellar doors and hopefully a couple of picnics and enjoy what Orange has to offer.

"If they haven't been out to a cellar door before, maybe this is the month to do it."

The Orange Farmers Market will take place on Saturday at the Northcourt behind the Orange City Library and Mrs Arnott said there are still tickets available for some of the events during the month.