The 2015 festival came in under its $450,000 budget and around 15,000 tickets were sold.

Ms Fyfe said the formation of a community advisory group was key to achieving goals set after a record financial loss in 2014. 

“On the back of 2014, we did some research, set some goals that would re-set the festival back to it’s original purpose, a tourism driver,” she said. 

“We met those goals and delivered the festival under budget.

“I’m confident we have a strong platform to continue the re-build phase and deliver a strong result into the future.” 

Ms Fyfe said while ticket sales were lower than previous years, the shorter festival (from eight days to seven) and the introduction of a multi-day pass needed to be taken into consideration. 

“The figure was what we expected and we are happy with it,” she said. 

Around 1000 festival goers were surveyed and Ms Fyfe said about 60 per cent of those attending said they would not have come to Warrnambool if it wasn’t for the festival.

She said there was also a strong figure of people visiting from Melbourne, despite the 2014 financial result making it difficult to brand and market the festival. 

Ms Fyfe said planning for 2016 festival was under way and it would follow the same “grass-roots” approach as the 2015 event. 

“I’m really confident we have had those tough years festivals always go through and are now moving in the right direction as we rebuild.”