A crowd seven times the Millthorpe's population flocked to the village's Christmas markets on Sunday.
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The Millthorpe Markets are held twice a year to raise money for the Millthorpe Public School but there was concern among organisers for the Sunday, December 3 Christmas markets.
Canteen manager Michelle Slacksmith said it was touch and go due to wet weather on Wednesday and Thursday but the sun came out in time and so did the crowd.
"We had 9000 through the gate, which was great but we got the perfect day really," Mrs Slacksmith said.
"We had 280 stall holders and that's a mix of food vendors and arts, craft, all vendors.
"It was pretty spread throughout the whole day, the busiest period is between 9.30am and 10.30am."
Mrs Slacksmith has lived in Millthorpe for two and a half years and said she was asked to become part of the committee in the first year and she's run the canteen for the last two years.
"The record we had was the first one back from COVID, which was 10,000 people and normally we get between 8000 and 10,000 people so 9000 is great," she said.
"Lots of the stall holders said the same, people were spending, they were happy."
The final takings in the canteen were yet to be added up but Mrs Slacksmith said she expected it to be "up there with one of our better years."
She said the biannual markets are the only fundraisers for the school and the whole day was run by volunteers.
"It's basically the school from the baking through to lots of the people who were here directing traffic from 4.30am," Mrs Slacksmith said.
"The whole village and whole school really comes together and without that obviously it wouldn't happen."
Stall-holder and sculptor Stewart Litchfield travelled from Wagga Wagga for the market was delighted with the outcome.
Through his business Rusty Barbs Designs he sells sculptures he made from agricultural scrap metal and was pleased with the response.
"This is our fourth time so we've been here for probably the last three years, we missed a couple [of markets] but we've been here most times," Mr Litchfield said.
He said the size of the market and its popularity made it worthwhile to pack up his sculptures and travel from his home in Wagga Wagga to Millthorpe each time.
"It's the biggest market we do with the stalls and so many people come here," Mr Litchfield said.
"It's got a really good vibe.
"We do well here and they look for garden art or garden stuff, garden sculptures.
"People come from a long way, it's not just from around here and out to Dubbo, it's Sydney, we've had stuff to to everywhere in Australia from here."
Mr Litchfield said he didn't bring the stall to the last Christmas markets in Millthorpe so he didn't know what it would be like.
"There was a lot of energy here in the morning, that's when people come to buy so we had a lot of people here at different times," he said.
Unfortunately he didn't sell out with "a few big pieces" that he wanted to sell and "have done more miles than Bourke and Wills" still left to be taken back to Wagga Wagga when the market ended.
"I sold a lot of little stuff," he said.
"People were hunting for Christmas presents and that type of stuff which is understandable.
"We sold some big stuff too."
Mr Litchfield has been making the sculptures himself for the past 15 years and sources the steal and scrap metal from farms throughout the Riverina.
"When I go to their place and they say 'come have a look at my scrap heap' then I'll have a look and say, 'take me down to the old dam down the back', that's where we find a lot of our stuff," he said.
"We use anything with an interesting shape, some of it is quite old so it's got a lot of history and people enjoy that sort of stuff."