Nick and Kate Shepherd from the Wild Vine Vineyard initially planned to launch Wildfire Festival in 2020, but those plans fizzled with the untimely arrival of coronavirus.

Instead, they will be holding it this year on July 10 in what they hope will be an explosive start to a yearly event on the Wagga calendar.

Mr Shepherd said they wanted to pull out all the stops to make up for last year, which he described as a depressing time for event venues and the live entertainment industry.

"It's great to see people having a good time again. Drinking while standing up and dancing - the things we used to take for granted," Mr Shepherd said.

"As soon as people were allowed to dance again it totally changed the whole atmosphere, it was fantastic. It was good to see people partying again.

"It's nice and cold so we're trying to get people out of their loungerooms and doing something."

Mrs Shepherd said she and her husband were working frantically to get through the backlog of events and weddings, with many Wagga couples putting their ceremonies on ice until the world got back to normal.

She said it was heartening to see festivals and live events come back with a vengeance in Wagga after a stifling year of lockdown.

Mrs Shepherd said it had been a particularly hard time for her friends in catering, events, and hospitality, who felt the full brunt of COVID-19 restrictions.

"We've got lots of mates that are working in hospitality, so it's nice to support them," Mrs Shepherd said.

"It's nice to support all our mates as well - the lighting designers, the musicians, we want to bring a lot of people together."

The event will feature fire juggling from the acrobats of Zana Academy, pyrotechnics from Bang on Fireworks, live music from several Wagga musos, and barbecued meats from the Smoking Butcher.

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