The rain clouds stayed away on both Saturday and Sunday ensuring  the festival was the perfect weekend escape. 

Cellar doors and restaurants were kept busy with thousands of people stopping in for lunch or wine tasting. 

Eden Anthony said the weekend was an absolute success and it was great to see more local people, particularly people from Singleton and the Hunter visiting during the eighth Little Bit of Italy event.  

“We want people from far and wide to visit us but we also want locals to come check out what’s right there on their doorstep,” he said.

Mr Anthony said that some of the comments from festival goers were very positive including one man who said it was the best event in the Hunter Valley. 

The numbers haven’t been crunched yet but the volunteer organisers are already confident that businesses have had a better turnover than last year.