Myrtleford marked 18 years of local Italian celebration as the town welcomed back thousands of tourists and visitors alike to this year's La Fiera festival over the weekend.

Some 2600 tickets had already been pre-sold as gates opened on Saturday morning for La Festa, with the Piazza cordoned-off and guests lined up at rows of food stalls set along the Great Alpine Road and Clyde Street, which sold mouth-watering Italian sweet and savoury dishes, regional wines and freshly-brewed coffees.

As part of the Bendigo Bank Children's Hub free entertainment line-up in Jubilee Park, families were able to drop by to get their faces painted, visit the Mountain View activity marquee to play with multi-coloured pasta, attend one of magician Luigi Zucchini's performances and track down Balloonatic Bruce and ask for their favourite balloon animal or prop.

The Snazzy Snaps photo booth saw an endless line of eager modelling enthusiasts don a range of costumes to create their perfect look.

"People have been gravitating towards the big dinosaur and shark heads for their photos; they're very popular," Tamara Wright said.

At the main stage, MC James Liotta introduced the Veneto Choir, Lorenzo Iannotti & Co, Solo Antico and Dean Canan to help attendees kick up their heels, to both classic and modern Italian melodies.

Myrtleford's local circoli (Italian cultural groups) Vicentini, Trentino and Trevisani created long lines of customers, eager for a taste of their regional specialties passed down over the years.

"It's great we're able to keep carrying on these traditions," a spokesperson from circolo Trentino said.

"We realised our group is turning 60 this year, so we'll have to figure out how we're going to celebrate."

Adriano Perluzzo said his family-and-friend-group (who were wearing matching t-shirts) booked a 25-seater bus to attend La Fiera for the tenth year in a row.

"I'm a 'life member'," he said.

"Our coffee squad decided to wear a group outfit this year to spread the spirit of Italian culture.

"We usually wear something similar, but now we designed something of our own to reflect our love of coffee."

While Saturday's sunshine gave way to a smattering of rain on Sunday, it didn't stop the Italian spirit, as hundreds of people enjoyed 'Il Mercato' in the Piazza, to get their hands on the best produce the region has to offer.

MC and singer for the morning, Dean Canan, lost his voice from his performances on the main stage the previous day, so John Bianco from Mildura, who had just happened to bring along his button accordion, provided market attendees with a number of up-beat songs to tap their feet to.

Children and adults alike danced to the music, made their way around the stalls propped up in the Piazza and lined up for their favourite Italian treats.

At the Slow-Grown Foods stall, Hannah Axelsen and Mathew Hurdis were occupied for most of the morning as perusers purchased a selection of their scrumptious pastries.

"This is our first year being a part of La Fiera's Sunday market," Hannah said.

"It looked like a lot of fun, so we were drawn to it.

"We've been flat-out: the sourdoughs sold out very quickly this morning and our pastries and focaccias have been very popular.

"It's great to be part of the local celebrations: we hope we'll be back again next year."

First-time-visitor, Merina Druit, was already planning a return trip after spending a perfect weekend at La Fiera with her family.

"I'm going to come back," she said.

"It's a beautiful region and we've met so many great people.

"We're so lucky; yesterday was a beautiful sunny day for the party and today's rain is perfect for a gentle morning out at a market."