Around 250 people attended Saturday night’s ‘Banjo Bash’ at the Yeoval Community Hall, with a steady crowd enjoying Sunday’s festivities at the town’s museum.

The festival was deemed a success by committee member, Alf Cantrell, who said the event continues to attract people from around the state.

“There was surprisingly people from everywhere,” he said. “Some families were from the Central Coast who had lived in the area before, we had people from Young, Forbes, Parkes, Dubbo, Orange – it was quite across the board, and I would say more than 50 per cent of the people that were here were visitors.” 

Anne Kirkpatrick kept Saturday night’s crowd entertained, while poets from Sydney, the north coast, Lightening Ridge and Wombat recited poetry at Sunday’s breakfast. 

“We had one man here who was 98 years old and he recited several poems that he had written himself and one of them was as long as The Man From Snowy River – it was an intensive poem and he never bat an eyelid,” Mr Cantrell said.

“The concert we had here was by far the biggest. We did a count by half way through the morning and had about 45 people in the yard, after lunch there were still the same but there had been a turnover.

“I was very happy with the weekend, with the numbers and of course the main part of the festival goes on in Orange and will for the rest of the week.”