The day shone for the fifth annual Whangarei Fritter Festival, with rain settling in only after the event had been put to bed.
Saturday's festival pulled in the crowds to be entertained by The Feelers, The Black Seeds, dDub, Less the Harp, Cake and Eat it, Rangitane Riot and Farandicus.
There can be no Fritter Festival without fritters, and there were 25 entries in this year's hot contest. Taste treats included last year's winners Land and Sea Cafe Bar and Eatery's two entries - a roasted pork apple and fennel fritter with chilli crackling and a flat white fritter with salted espresso cream. The Old Stone Butter Factory defended last year's people's choice win for its paua fritter with an apple crumble fritter with salted caramel sauce.
Other fritters in the mix included vegetable fritters from Cafe Divine to churro fritters from Fat Camel Cafe, and a slow braised pulled lamb shank fritter with herb-crusted garlic potato and a plum and cranberry cream by Nectar Cafe.
The Northern Advocate couldn't contact the organisers for comment on the event before edition time but some festival-goers thought the crowd exceeded last year's 5300.
Last week Dannii Vallely-Te Kani, events manager at Venue and Events Whangarei, said tickets were selling strongly for the increasingly popular annual day out at Toll Stadium.
A couple of people who had too much to drink needed 'time out' but, on the whole, the Fritter Festival crowd was well-behaved, said Whangarei Police.
The festival had little to do with a busy Saturday evening where police were called out to a series of "domestics and disorderly behaviour".
Some of the disorderly incidents, including one at the Whangarei Top 10 Holiday Park, were fuelled by an over-indulgence in alcohol.