WINE lovers from across the region and interstate flocked to Halls Gap at the weekend for the annual Grampians Grape Escape.
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The two-day food and wine festival showcased produce from across Australia.
Grampians Grape Escape chairman and Northern Grampians mayor Kevin Erwin said the weekend kicked off with great visitor numbers on Saturday.
"Saturday was huge, we had a great crowd," he said.
"The weather was a little bit gloomy, but the stalls were still very busy.
"It is good to see a great showcase of products and businesses around."
This year's event featured more than 120 stalls along with live music and cooking demonstrations.
Cr Erwin said strong visitor numbers continued on Sunday, with many stalls running out of products by the end of the day.
He said the event, which has been running since 1992, seemed to build each year.
"Our online tickets sales were up quite a bit on last year," he said.
"From the pre-sale we could see that about 40 per cent of visitors were newcomers to the area.
"We seem to have the right mix of activities and the right layout - we need to keep tweaking the event a little bit, but hopefully it will continue to grow."
Cr Erwin said the annual event was great for tourism, which benefited the wider Grampians region.
"We survey a lot of people and most say they will be back to the area within a year, so we get repeat visitors from the festival," he said.
"I was talking to some people on Saturday who had come from South Australia.
"They intend to come back again next year and bring a busload of people with them. They are the stories we like to hear."
Three celebrity chefs took the stage this year for demonstrations, including My Kitchen Rules judge Colin Fassnidge, author Sarah Glover and television presenter Emmylou MacCarthy.
Cr Erwin said a highlight of the event was always the cooking demonstrations.
"I saw Colin Fassnidge doing his demonstration and he was filling the marquee up," he said. "He was great entertainment."
Live music was also a highlight of the festival, with performances from Lloyd Spiegel, Andrew De Silva in Purple Revolution, Little Georgia and the Sugar Fed Leopards.