VISTA -- There was love in the air on Sunday, and it all had to do with chocolate.

"There's nothing not to love. Chocolate fixes everything. It does! It does!" declared C.C. Casady of San Marcos, a chocolate vendor at the Vista Village Chocolate Festival and Street Fair.

"It makes everything better," said fairgoer Bob Houston of Carlsbad, his two young daughters in tow.

"Chocolate is good for your soul," George Wit of La Jolla said. "It's why God gave you taste buds."

Odes to chocolate were easy to come by at the annual festival's Chocolate Alley, where vendors sold chocolate candy, fudge, toffee and cupcakes, raw cacao bars and chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick.

Hundreds of festival visitors crowded other downtown streets for live music, dance demonstrations, carnival style-rides and to buy food and baubles.

There also were kite flying demonstrations and new kite-inspired sculptures on display as part of the city's ongoing Kites over Vista celebration.

But it all came back to chocolate.

"It's so good. Everyone loves chocolate," said Alex Huerta of Vista, a Palomar College student who was wearing her Pride of Vista Princess 2009 tiara and sash to greet fair visitors.

"It's a sweet indulgence when times are hard," said Sandra Paventi, owner of California Cupcake Co. in Carlsbad and a Chocolate Alley vendor.

Casady, who owns CC's Chocolates Etc. in San Marcos, agreed.

"Even when the chips are down in this economy, people can treat themselves," Casady said.

Even in this weak economy, sales have been healthy this year, she said.

One of her store's customers recently bought three pounds of fudge "and said that was her lunch. She got bad news, and she flipped it around," Casady said.

"One girl comes in two or three times a week and buys a one-inch by one-inch piece of fudge because it fixes her day," she said.

Apparently, a lot of people are turning to chocolate in this recession.

The National Candy Association this spring reported a 28 percent year-to-year increase nationwide in gourmet chocolate sales in 2008 -- the fourth year of double-digit growth. Candy sales overall were up 3.7 percent in 2008.

When Fran Figueroa of San Diego was laid off from her procurement job last year, she said she turned to her chocolate-making skills to start her own company, Magical Toffee.

On Sunday, she was manning a Chocolate Alley booth for the first time, handing out free samples and selling box after box of chocolate-drenched toffee.

"I'm loving it. I'm having fun," Figueroa said.