Mount Gambier’s festival of fun – Fringe 2023 – has wrapped up its 10-day run, after filling the community with plenty of quirkiness and creativity.

The festival’s artistic director Louise Adams said this year’s event had been a huge success, with thousands of people flocking to 50 events.

“To see the community, artists and venues all embrace not only the massive opening weekend and the big community celebration, but also getting out to all the diverse and exciting ticketed shows across the city that have occurred in the 10 days is such an amazing achievement for this community run festival,” she said.

“We estimated around 8000 attendees across opening weekend, on quick calculations we had 2900 people attend open access registered events.”

Ms Adams said some shows had sold out, while the remainder were well attended.

“It’s such a great feeling to look into a room and see so many people there having a great time and ready to enjoy that show with you, I know that as an artist but also as someone who is wanting to see those artists have successful events at Fringe,” she said.

“Even the smaller, more quirky events, even if they have not sold out … the people who were there were so into what they were doing, and just walked through those doors with that beautiful open mindedness that comes with Fringe.

“I was fortunate to get so some of those events and I was reassured there is a place for so many different types of art in our community and Fringe really shows that.”

Ms Adams said countless hours had been spent pulling together the festival.

“I just want to saw a massive thank you to all of the Fringe committee, we are a community run festival, those individuals who have worked so hard to see it come to fruition and I’m incredibly proud to work with them,” she said.

“To our funding bodies and our sponsors, I know how lucky we are to have that support, whether it’s council or local businesses, it’s really important for a community arts festival like Fringe Mount Gambier to have you.”

Ms Adams said organisers would finish off the behind the scenes work for this year’s festival, before taking a well-earned break and cracking into the 2024 event.

“Something so clear to me as someone involved from start, and to others who have been involved in some way, this festival is here to stay,” she said.

“It’s cemented into our annual calendar and what we do as a community, I really look forward to seeing it continue to grow and improve and create those opportunities for artists and art workers, importantly for our audience who deserve the best the arts world can offer to our city.”