By Mary O’KEEFE

The 36th Annual Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival last weekend was a success – even under cloudy skies.

Dale Dawson, Montrose Shopping Park Association event coordinator, said there wasn’t yet an official number of attendees who attended but an unofficial tally is about 35,000.

“More people came Sunday than Saturday,” Dawson said. He added the weather may have played a role with a cool and damp Saturday.

“The sun never came out,” Dawson said of Saturday’s weather.

On Sunday the sun finally showed its face in the afternoon, not too long before the festival was about to end, and the crowds were better.

This year’s festival had a few changes, including having a Kids Zone near Orangedale Avenue.

“They got really busy,” Dawson said.

The Kids Zone brought more shoppers toward the far west area of Honolulu Avenue to the vendors there.

“I think the biggest hit was the stage we rented from the City of Glendale,” he said. This year there were only two bands performing, the Mojo Filter Band in the mornings and the Ploughboys in the afternoon.

“We had people dancing in the street,” Dawson said.

The vendors seemed to be happy, he said, with many of them still emailing him about how successful they felt the Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival was this year.

The event was good for the local brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants, too, with people enjoying not only the Arts and Crafts food court but local restaurants and stores.

“And Casa Cordoba [sponsored] our new beer and wine garden,” Dawson said.

The garden was also a success.

There were more vendors this year with Dawson having to turn some away, which, he said, proves that the Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival has a good reputation that more and more vendors want to be part of.

  Mary Okeefe