BANGOR (AP) – Final attendance figures show the National Folk Festival finale on the Bangor waterfront topped out at 135,000.

Attendance rates were up from last year’s 100,000 and a smaller figure of 80,000 during the inaugural festival in Bangor in 2002.

“We’ve certainly accomplished our goals,” said Heather McCarthy, coordinator for the 66th annual National Folk Festival.

Festival organizers calculated the attendance by using a combination of aerial photography and a review of traffic on shuttle buses and in parking lots, and of crowd density on the festival grounds.

With less than a week to go before the big event, organizers were still trying to raise the remaining $100,000 they needed for the festival. Though the National Council for the Traditional Arts provided support for the festival, $600,000 had to be raised locally to pull off the three-day event.

The final numbers will not be in until later this week, but McCarthy said the festival’s bucket brigade had a good weekend.

The festival will be held next year in Richmond, Va., following a three-year run on the banks of the Penobscot River.

But Bangor plans to continue the groove by hosting its own musical extravaganza, the American Folk Festival.

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