Those who attended the two-day Rhythm and Alps music festival in the Cardrona Valley went home yesterday morning having dodged at least one bullet.
No-one was very likely to have a case of sunburn from their time camping, drinking and listening to music, as the sun emerged properly only as patrons left the festival grounds on Robrosa Station.
The festival attracted a crowd of about 5000, about half last year's.
However, a passing parade of heavy rain showers, strong southerly winds and cold temperatures did not seem to affect the good mood of those spoken to by the Otago Daily Times.
Hannah Cleaver, of Auckland, said the weather was ''pretty average'' but she had enjoyed the festival, lamenting only the lack of a countdown to midnight.
Abbey Holloway, of Christchurch, said she was ''absolutely saturated'' on New Year's Eve and had a ''freezing'' night in her tent, but the rain did stop before midnight and she had a really good time.
Rory Hill, of Queenstown, said he did not suffer from the cold and the festival ''couldn't have been much better''.
Edward Williams, of Christchurch, was attending the festival for the second time and considered it ran more smoothly than last time. With a smaller crowd, it was ''a little bit less hectic but still heaps of fun''.
Kyle Howard, from Vancouver, said on New Year's Eve there were gazebos flying across the campsite in the wind.
''Everyone was still in high spirits, ready to face the elements, so it was very nice.''
He considered the musicians put on a ''really good show'' and the lighting was great.
Ioana Popa, also from Vancouver, appreciated those turning up in costumes and noted there was a wide variety of festival-goers, including even a few ''hippies''.
Organisers went to considerable trouble to encourage festival-goers to take their camping gear home with them, to avoid the huge cleanup required last year.
Some tent sites, including one inhabited by a group of high school-leavers from Dunedin, were ''trashed'', according to their neighbours.
While festival staff were busy dismantling tents for the landfill, the ''Love Your Tent'' campaign did seem to have an effect, with many festival-goers carrying tents, chairs, tables, chilly bins and mattresses on their way out.
Festival co-founder and director Alex Turnbull was still waiting for final attendance figures but thought there were about 5000.
He believed the reduction was due to last year's bad weather and negative publicity about queues last year, as well as competition from a large number of music events.
The event would ''absolutely'' be back next year with a few ''tweaks'', and he hoped to gradually rebuild the numbers.
