Bend WinterFest Weekend ‘A Big Success’

Beautiful weather, sunshine and community spirit helped to make Sunday’s last day of the 2011 Bend WinterFest a big success, according to event organizers.

Though it was delayed two hours due to the rough weather of late, the Metal Mulisha, a popular motor sports event, drew huge crowds Sunday afternoon.

Crews were out blow-torching the roads to clear ice and slick streets for the riders.

Newport Avenue Market was one of this years biggest vendors, sampling food and tasty desserts.

WinterFest officials along with event vendors say this year’s middle-of-event snowstorm blew in a big crowd, but the final day’s sunshine also brought lots of smiles to an event they worked hard to pull off.

“This weekend has been fantastic,” said Sandy Henderson, president of Lay It Out Events. “We were a little worried that people would not come out because of the snow — and in fact, we got more people because of the snow, simply because its WinterFest. It looked fantastic.”

“It’s been fun,” said Rudy Dory of Newport Avenue Market. “We’ve never done anything like this before, and this was our first adventure into that, and we wanted to do it right. I think we’ve made a lot of friends along the way, and I think some people have got to taste some really yummy stuff.”

This year’s event attendance numbers haven’t been determined just yet, but WinterFest coordinators said they were very pleased with the amount of money raised in part to help the local non-profit Saving Grace.