The DREAM Festival, which began in 2010, was established to celebrate the arts and showcase the cultural strengths of the region.

Dubbo Regional Council gives $40,000 to the festival each year and in 2017, a NSW government grant also provided $20,000 to help market the event across the state.

DREAM Festival Committee chair Anne Field said last year’s event far surpassed the expected number of attendees. There were more than 18,000 attendances at the festival, of those 5000 were from outside the local government area, Ms Field said.

Based on only the visitors who came from more than 100 kilometres away and an estimation they only stayed for one night, Ms Field said a conservative $524,000 was bought into the city.

“Should the current pattern of expansion continue, it’s expected 25,000 attendances could be achieved by 2025. We’re hoping that we’ll get there,” Ms Field said.

Ms Field said the festival was organised to avoid the school holiday period as motels in Dubbo were usually booked out at that time.

Mayor Ben Shields has given his full support to the event.

“I think the DREAM Festival is certainly heading in the right direction. A couple of years ago I was sceptical but I tell you what if that lantern parade doesn’t put any critics back in their box – like me – nothing will. Congratulations from me indeed,” Cr Shields said.

Most of the DREAM Festival events are either free or run just to break even to ensure all socio-economic groups are able to attend, Ms Field said. The Aboriginal cultural aspect had also increased dramatically in the eight years since it began.

The next DREAM Festival will be held from October 18 to 28. It’ll be centred around the festival’s values of striving for excellence, inclusiveness and bringing contemporary events to the country.  

This year, the committee had increased to 15 and plenty new partnerships developing, Ms Field said. She said there were multiple new events planned for the 2018 DREAM Festival.