Gunnedah Summerfest has experienced one of its biggest years.
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The annual week-long program is a staple in the January school holidays and was buoyed by increasing numbers last week.
Co-director Ben Davis said it was "amazing" to see more and more locals coming along each day.
"There were lots of people at all the events and lots of new people to meet and get to know, so it was fantastic," he said.
"The whole week, it was a lot busier than it usually is."
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At least 60 men headed out to the bloke's barbecue and up to 90 women got together for a foodies night.
Numbers at the kids club, creche and the Summerfest Cafe grew over the week and Mr Davis said it was "good to reconnect with people".
"One day, we had more than 50 people there [in the cafe], which is way more than we usually have," he said.
Mr Davis and the team took over Summerfest three years ago from the local churches but Gunnedah has a long history with the previously named Summer Mission, which was run by Scipture Union.
"People know who we are now ... we're getting to know people a lot better because I guess we only see people once a year. It's nice to keep building on those relationships," Mr Davis said.
"There was a lot of discussion about the drought. It's hard not to talk about it. It was nice to have rain while we were there but it's obviously something that's looming large in people's minds whether they live on the land or not.
"People were talking about how it's been a tough year. It was good to talk about it because blokes don't often talk about things that are hard."
Mr Davis said the team were keen to get to connect with more young adults and had been throwing around ideas for next year's program.
"We'd like to get to know more young adults," he said.
"We had more young adults at the men's dinner this year, and by all reports, at the women's event.
"We're looking forward to coming back next year."