A woman was airlifted to Bendigo Hospital on Saturday after a suspected overdose, but made a full recovery.

St Arnaud Sergeant Bill Alford was at the festival all weekend and said he was pleased with the overall outcome of the event.

“That woman recovered quite well. There were several other overdoses but they were able to be managed at the festival which was great,” he said.

“We had a very good non-violent crowd with no reported assaults. We had one theft which was dealt with and a couple of minor drug possession incidents which were also dealt with.”

Sergeant Alford said on the whole the event ran well.

“It is a quite organised event and is smaller than other festivals like Pitch or Rainbow Serpent,” he said.

“We had about 5,000 people and overall we are really happy with how it panned out.”

Northern Grampians Shire Kara Kara ward councillor Tony Driscoll said the success and positive reputation of the event is crucial to it returning to the region.

“It was good in terms of the amount of participants and their behaviour,” he said.

“Everyone is aware these festivals are highly scrutinised, so I think it is getting through to participants if they want these raves in the bush to continue they have to moderate their behaviour.

“We are really happy with the outcome. The reality was it was up to the participants to demonstrate there was a reasonable level of behaviour, because as a community, tolerance levels get low if bad patterns continue.”

St Arnaud Health and Fitness owner Natalie Knights attended the event on Saturday and said it was “very well run”.

Related: GMF goes off without a hitch

“I thought it was awesome, I had never been to anything like that before,” she said.

“There were staff everywhere, security was great and there were caretakers around the place checking on people's wellbeing all the time.

“There was obviously a lot of dust but there were water trucks spraying around to keep it to a minimum.”

Mrs Knights said while parts of the community are not in favour of the event, she believes it has a place within the region.

“My perception is it is a really good thing for the area,” she said.

“The festival got community groups involved and the it definitely brings a lot of business and people to St Arnaud.”

St Arnaud Community Action Network president Jane Sutherland said she hopes the event will continue into the future.

“Last year SCAN received a $2000 donation from Babylon and they also give back to other community organisations,” she said.

“There are people opposed for noise factor but for local businesses it is a good thing.”

While you’re with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday morning from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you’re up-to-date with all the news from across the Northern Grampians shire, sign up here.​