Anderson Park came alive on Saturday with Chinese music, dancers, historic re-enactments, markets, a wine expo, Tai Chi demos, martial arts, Chinese fireworks and - who could forget - the spectacular Chinese lion dancers.

It all attracted an estimated 3000 to 5000 people, which organisers say they couldn’t be happier with.

“It’s purely down to the new emphasis, I believe,” David said, “it really captured people’s imaginations.”

The day began with the official opening of the festival at 1.45pm by Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor and an introduction from David supported by a Mandarin translator.

Mr Taylor said it was particularly significant the festival came at the same time Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the trade minister were visiting Asia, including China.

“It is timely that your community should choose to celebrate that connection with China.”

He described Young Shire Council as visionary to rebrand the festival to a Chinese theme.

The annual historic re-enactment of the 1861 Lambing Flat Riots at 2pm made “groundbreaking” history for the town with organisers - local Kim Johnson and the Chinese Heritage Association - using Chinese Australians in the re-enactment for the first time. 

He thanked them for taking part despite the pain surrounding it. 

One Chinese-Australian, Harry Tseng, spoke about what the re-enactment meant to him, saying knowing what happened, “tears up my soul” and he hoped the festival and re-enactment, “sparked a conversation about the history of my people in Australia”.

“We can start seeing the reconciliation of what it is to be Australian,” Mr Tseng said.

He said just being in Young was an emotional experience, causing him to think about what his ancestors went through.

Crowds also gathered for a sneak peek of Chinese opera, the Tai Chi and martial arts demonstrations had every child – and every child at heart - captivated.

While festival-goers browsed the historic artefacts on show just outside the Visitors Centre, others sipped wine and sampled Chinese cuisine made from local produce on the railway platform.

If you weren’t gazing at the creative and colourful performances from local and village schools during the Future Faces segment, or local dance schools, you were shopping at the markets

Fringe events and attractions such as Chinese Australian short films, the Lambing Flat Chinese Festival Sculpture, Wood and Big Art exhibition, the Lambing Flat Museum and even local businesses all tallied good numbers.

The Chinese opera, Life’s a Stage, at the Southern Cross Cinema lured between 70 and 80 people.

But the drums that sounded and what followed come 5.50pm, to David, were the highlight of the festival.

“The lions dancing (which was to start at 6pm) was really unexpected. At 5.50pm we were asking where was everyone? The drums started playing and you could see the people just pouring in – people looking over from the Empire pub and walking over,” he said.

“I think, too, a lot of people expected fireworks like what was done at the Cherry Festival and a lot of people might have been sitting outside their homes to watch but these were Chinese fireworks… little did they know what was unfolding at Anderson Park.”

A nervous committee began the lions dance ahead of schedule as they watched grey clouds gather above Young.

“We were worried it was going to rain because if it did they couldn’t do the lion dance and that would have been horrendous,” David said.

As with every first event there were a few hiccups/

The festival was missing its selection of Chinese cuisine and the anticipated evening lighting of the lanterns.

“The Chinese cuisine from Sydney, they rang and cancelled – that really had a big impact. It was raining in Sydney and I think because they had never been to Young, they thought it was raining here too,” David said.

However the silver lining was that the cuisine available in the park that day from the Young and District Multicultural Association stall was “overwhelmingly” popular. A boon for them.

“The Multicultural Association was inundated… they had to get more food three or four times,” David said.

As for the lanterns, David said “we could have managed that better”.

“No one brought any lanterns so we didn’t end up doing it. I think maybe next year we might visit the schools and get the children to design their own.

“These are all learning curves and, for our first festival, we did really well,” he said.

It’s now back to the drawing board for the organisers who, in the coming weeks, will sit down and assess this year’s festival.

“We’ll discuss what worked and what didn’t work, what we could do better. I certainly think the lion dancing will be back,” David said.