This year's Maritime Festival in Steveston was a cracker, both in terms of the weather and the crowds.
It was sunshine all the way for the three-day festival at the Britannia Heritage Shipyard, which attracted a bumper 35,000 people.
The numbers blew away the previous year's estimated attendance of between 15,000 and 20,000.
"We're very happy with the turnout and we've received lots of rave reviews in terms of the diversity of the program," said the City of Richmond's spokesman Ted Townsend.
"The Chinese Bunkhouse and the At the Helm exhibitions were popular and the Oriole was so pleased with the response they received that they're already in discussions for return visits.
"All in all, it was a very successful weekend and it's laid good building blocks for our future plans."
Kudos, Townsend said, should also go to Heritage Canada and the city's MPs for helping to secure grants, which helped grow the festival program this year.
