EARTH, water, fire and air.

They were all at the Ukitopia Festival last weekend and you didn't have to be either alchemist or sophist to appreciate them.

"It was terrific," said organiser Natascha Wernick.

In its fifth year, numbers rose to about 1000, despite the rain and impending storms.

Festival Director Thomas Bailey said that there has been a demographic shift in Uki over the last ten years from an essentially a farming community to many new families moving into the area with young children who are artists, performers, musicians, and creative people.

"One of his highlights was the Wishing Ceremony," he said.

"Throughout the event audience members were encouraged to write wishes on ribbons and weave them into an art installation.

"The wishes then became part of the performance that involved ceremony, dance and theatre bringing together the five elements of air, water, earth, fire and magic to sing out the community's wishes.

"The appearance of a unicorn, representing the element of magic created an eerie hush through the audience as they all became entranced by the ceremony."

The three day event involved six venues and included an opening ceremony that featured Uki's longest Conga line.

The $50,000 event was funded by Festivals Australia, the Tweed Shire Council and other sponsors.

This year the organisers trialled a new ticketing system to help make the event economically and energetically sustainable.

"This ensured that we covered the costs of our event and all the little glitches will be ironed out before the next festival," Ms Wernick said.

"There is discussion at this point about moving the festival to a drier time of the year on the third weekend in September and maybe even doing it bi-annually."

See more on Ukitopia's Facebook page facebook.com/Ukitopia or the website ukitopiaartscollective.com.