Thousands of people saw in 2023 at the return of Mount Gambier’s New Year’s Eve Festival at Vansittart Park.

The community flocked to the oval to celebrate the New Year together for the first time in two years after the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.

Mount Gambier New Year’s Eve Festival committee chair Steve Toope said the celebrations were a success and he estimated approximately 3500 to 4000 people attended the event throughout the night.

“Everyone seemed to enjoy it, all the caterers went really well, a couple of them actually sold out of food,” Mr Toope said.

“We wanted to make it a safe environment and we wanted to try and keep it affordable.

“It was good, there were no incidents, it was all quite happy, the music was really good.

“The other thing in our favour was good weather, it was really good weather.”

There was plenty of kids’ entertainment and Mr Toope said people enjoyed live music from bands Calamari for Breakfast, Skyline Haze, Magnet, Stokes and Christie Wallace Trio.

“The live music was really good, it was all family-orientated stuff, there were new songs, there were old songs, there were all sorts of things,” he said.

Mr Toope said the festival received positive feedback from attendees and he believed it was a well-received event the community wanted to see continue.

“The general comments that I received and read about it seems that it is an event that people would like to see keep going,” he said

“I just get the feel they think it is worthwhile and it is something they enjoy.”

Mr Toope said he was grateful the community attended the event and people enjoyed the fireworks at 9.30pm and midnight.

“It was a good night, a positive night and a good opportunity for the community to celebrate and end 2022,” he said.

“I think everyone left the celebrations in a good mood.”

Mr Toope said the festival committee was pleased with how the event came together and said lots of work and commitment went into organising the celebrations.

“Thank you to all the sponsors, all the people who helped out, there are numerous ones, all the food vans that turned up, all the committee members and everybody that helped, it is a good community effort to get it all done,” he said.

Mr Toope said the NYE Festival committee was keen to hear community feedback about their thoughts on the event.