Attendance was down slightly for this year's LaSalle Strawberry Festival.
Attendance totaled just over 28,500 people during the four-day event from June 6 to 9 at the Vollmer Complex.
Patti Funaro, Director of Culture and Recreation, says the attendance figures were down a little this year compared to the last two years.
"The weather was a little bit cooler this year, and we had rain on one of the evenings," she says. "Still really strong numbers for us, but down a little bit, but we think that's because of the weather."
This is the fourth year that the LaSalle Strawberry Festival has been held at the Vollmer Complex, and the figures are below the 2023 numbers that saw 31,997 people attend the annual event.
The town says visitors indulged in 4,640 servings of strawberries and ice cream during the four-day event.
Funaro says they really lucked out, the two years prior to this, with having four days of sunny, warm weather, and this year it just wasn't quite there.
"Prior to COVID, we would average around 25,000 people, so we're still averaging a little bit higher than pre-COVID," she says. "Certainly that's a lot of people to get through those gates over four days, and we're very happy with it."
Attendance in 2022 is still the record with 33,250 visitors, which the town attributed to the festival being the first major regional event since early 2020 due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Revenue generated from the festival will be used to offset the cost to the town of hosting the event, support Life After Fifty for providing volunteers for the strawberries and ice cream tent, and support Bike Windsor Essex, which had volunteers to operate a bike valet service throughout the weekend.
Any excess funds will be placed in reserves to support the festival in future years.