BOGGABRI Drover’s Campfire has once again impressed the judges of the Inland Tourism Awards, this year taking home a silver award.
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The popular April event saw its biggest crowd yet this year and was again nominated for the awards.
Last year, the Drover’s Campfire won the Community Festival and Events category and became a finalist in the state awards.
The event’s founder Geoff Eather said while organisers now had high hopes of winning gold, they had been happy with the silver award, and they had been advised the Drover’s Campfire could still be nominated in the state awards.
“We were happy we were able to be right up there with the best of them,” Mr Eather said.
“We thought the record crowd this year might have helped us along a bit but obviously, the opposition deserved it more.”
The category was won by the Junee Rhythm n Rail Festival, and Wagga Wagga’s Regenerate Youth Festival picked up a bronze award.
The overall winner of Festivals and Events was the Canowindra Balloon Challenge, with the Tamworth Country Music Festival picking up a silver. Best Tourist Attraction was the Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo.
Mr Eather said 10 people from Boggabri had attended the awards and enjoyed the masquerade theme.
An awards judge visited Boggabri in June when committee member Richard Gillham cooked up a camp oven meal as an example of what was offered and Jo Gillham cooked a batch of scones on one of the old fuel stoves on site.
The Inland Tourism Awards (INTA) are held annually to acknowledge excellence in tourism in the four regional tourism areas of Central, Inland, Murray and Riverina NSW.
Mr Eather said the event had a small, dedicated committee who called on many other community members for help, and managed to “double the population” of Boggabri while the event was on.
He said the Drover’s Campfire would not be the success it was without the Gillham family, who did everything from performing the skits on skit night to putting on shows at their woolshed.
The Boggabri Drover’s Campfire goes for four days and attracts hundreds of visitors with caravans and campers.