SCORES of thrifty-themed stalls, striking artwork and a rapping pensioner all helped this year’s Festival of Thrift become another huge success.

Within two hours of its opening on Saturday morning the festival had already attracted 10,000 people, and organisers anticipate that the numbers that visited over the whole weekend will exceed last year’s 27,000.

Fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, one of the festival founders, said he was delighted that yet again people turned out in their thousands to celebrate all things thrifty.

He said: “It seems that this year people have come back and brought their partners, their nans, their kids and their dogs!

“The festival is still in its infancy, I think it is a still a regional thing, a local thing, but if we play our cards right it can be a national event, but there is still an awful lot of work to do,” he said, adding: “I think the first festival hit a nerve, a positive nerve.

“I think people came along because it was a free event and they probably liked what they saw and they have come back to support it again.”

Festival director Stella Hall said she was proud to have brought the festival back to Darlington and said it would not have been possible without the support of its many partners and sponsors who got actively involved in the event.

She said that she hoped it could continue to run in Darlington for the foreseeable future and she already has ideas for next year’s event to build more on the area’s industrial heritage.

She said: “A festival has to be embedded in the place that it is in so we have got to be celebrating what is special in Darlington.

“I would like to celebrate the town’s industriousness, its creativity and its openness to new ideas, and I have already been speaking with artists who can help us do that.”

As with the 2013 event, the festival boasted a rich variety of stalls, workshops, entertainment and art.

From making purses out of milk cartons, to having a go at spinning yarn or adding a sample to the Museum of Water, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

Rapping pensioner Ida Barr - aka writer Christopher Green – kept the masses entertained on the main stage with her comedy music ‘mash ups’ which included several senior Darlington councillors as backing singers.

Artwork by internationally renowned artists such as Shane Waltener and Francisco de Pajaro was displayed alongside artwork by schoolchildren and community groups and there were a host of informative talks and creative workshops delivered indoors.

The festival was held at the Lingfield Point business park which itself is a homage to sustainable living as it has brought the site of the historic Patons and Baldwin wool factory to back to life with a bang.