Festival president Adele MacDonald said the event's ticketing website TryBooking revealed 80 per cent of tickets sold were to people with postcodes from outside the south-west.

"I think it goes to show what a great event the Koroit Irish Festival is," she said. "What started as very much a community event 25 years ago has this year seen the majority of ticket holders coming from outside of our region. It's an important festival for our people and they want to celebrate everything Irish with their friends and family outside the south-west.

"We also saw an enormous rush of tickets sold after the ABC Backroads program in January 2020 and the majority of those people decided to hold onto their ticket for this year's event.

"We've had a feature in Outback Magazine which caters to an older demographic and we were featured on 3AW on Monday.

"We hope in future years our Irish friends who fly over for the event can celebrate again with us all things Irish in Australia."

Killarney Beach Caravan Park and Koroit-Tower Hill Caravan Park are both managed by Moyne Shire Council.

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Moyne Shire Council mayor Daniel Meade was overjoyed to see the region's tourism industry strengthen from the festival.

"Whilst the Koroit Caravan Park is booked out for the festival weekend, unpowered sites are still available at Killarney Beach Caravan Park, just a few minutes' drive from Koroit," he said. "Council is thrilled to support the return of this year's Koroit Irish Festival and would like to wish organisers all the best for a successful event.

"Festivals such as this not only provide economic benefits to the shire, but are also a great way to bring our community together and support local businesses."

There are limited tickets left for the 2021 Koroit Irish Festival and tickets must be pre-purchased with none available on the gate. To book your ticket head to trybooking.com/BHSUW

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