Colourful carnivale key to crowd turnout

She said the festival attracted about 45,000 people in 2012 and more than 80,000 this year.

‘I was confident we’d get more, but did not expect 80,000 ” we are thrilled,’ she said.

‘There is no doubt that our media partnerships with Community Newspaper Group and Nova, both of which we ‘ramped up’ this year, were very successful in attracting a lot more people.

‘The thing that made us happiest about the street festival was the great sense of community, celebration and fun that the street festival inspired. The carnivale theme was key to this’

Mrs Battista said she was also extremely impressed with how many businesses stayed open.

‘Many businesses kept their doors open for the entire festival and we’ve received a lot of good feedback about trade on the night,’ she said.