Crowds flocked to Young as everything cherry related was celebrated.

Mayor John Walker officially opened the festival on Friday night, welcoming guests from far and wide.

Soon after, Caitlin Muller was overcome with emotion as she was crowned the 2014 Cherry Queen, while Emily Hardy was named 2014 Charity Queen. 

And a spectacular fireworks display had everyone in awe.

While the storms on Saturday meant numbers were down on last year, Young Tourism Manager David Newberry said businesses reported good foot traffic as people sought refuge from the wild conditions.

“We were a bit disappointed it rained, but even with the rain on Saturday we were still really happy with the numbers,” he said. 

“It was very uncanny it (the rain) stopped for the parade. 

“I think the silver lining was that a lot of businesses on main street were very busy.”

Crowd favourite Ben Wilkinson, from Byron Bay, took out the men’s cherry pie eating competition for the third year running. 

His finely tuned skills blew the other contestants out of the water. 

By late afternoon, thousands lined Boorowa Street for the festival parade, with a cheeky Pip the Cherry keeping everyone entertained. 

But the weather got the best of the festival on Saturday night, with the planned live entertainment having to be cancelled.

David said the push to promote the festival to Western Sydney paid dividends, with significant numbers of people also travelling from Canberra.

“Its over for another year, we’ll go through and look at what worked,” he said. 

“Everyone seemed to have a great time and the town was just packed.” 

Mayor John Walker said the spirit of the festival prevailed despite the weather.

“It’s been a very good festival, a lot of work went into it and the crowds still came up and enjoyed the activities,” he said. 

“It was a little bit dampened with the rain, but everyone was enthusiastic.

“I’d like to acknowledge the many groups in town that made the festival so successful.”