The Mountains was awash with tourists and locals alike seeking a chocolate hit last weekend for the inaugural Blue Mountains Chocolate Festival.
Focused on businesses from Leura to Mt Victoria, the festival included everything from tastings to cocktails, special menus, workshops, tours and screenings of the classic 2000 movie Chocolat starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche.
There were long queues of traffic to get into Katoomba and Leura over the weekend, and even longer queues to access many of the events.
Festival manager Robyn Jackson was surprised by its success and said many of the events were sold out before the weekend.
She said The Carrington Hotel’s tasting plate was hugely popular, as were tours of the Paragon Cafe’s historic chocolate factory and Blackheath market was reportedly “the busiest market they’ve ever seen”.
Meanwhile the Blue Mountains Food Co-Op had hundreds through their store, enticed in by their decorated Katoomba laneway, people left with big smiles after trying huge sample packs from Whisk and Pin’s new Katoomba showroom, and many enjoyed a cosy evening with chocolate martinis by the fire at Hotel Blue.
“We’ve had a really positive response from participants and stallholders,” Ms Jackson said.
It was so busy many people who hadn’t booked missed out on events, but still enjoyed a nice day out.
“There’s been encouragement to make next year’s bigger and better and have it in the one location,” Ms Jackson said.
She thought it likely the festival would be held again, subject to discussions with council, stallholders and tourism bodies.
