HUNDREDS of thousands of visitors flocked to Llandudno's Victorian Extravaganza over the Bank Holiday weekend making it "the most successful year".
More than 250,000 people are believed to have visited the town to enjoy the fairground attractions, live music, colourful costumes and historic vehicles.
Organiser estimate the event brings around £15 million into the local economy.
Chairman of the Victorian Extravaganza committee, Greg Robbins, said: "I think it's been the most successful year to be truthful. We won't get a level of the true figures for a few days, but the expanded range of entertainment and making sure people had more access to steam engines meant we were getting a lot of compliments all weekend."
New initiatives to ensure the smooth operation of the event included a park and ride system operating from Coleg Llandrillo Cymru and a new parade route in a bid to tackle traffic build up due to Maesdu Bridge remaining closed.
Committee member Paul Williams praised the 150 volunteers who helped coordinate the three-day festival and confirmed organisers of the Extravaganza were already looking to 2011.
He said: "For next year we need to think very carefully. It's the 25th anniversary and with that kind of event we need to go back to grass roots and bring a lot more Victorian rides in, which means a huge increase in cost. Typically, Victorian rides are four times more costly than a modern ride.
"Also, next year we do have some issues with accommodation in Llandudno. Easter and the May Day bank holiday are very, very close together. Quite a lot of [hotels] are full already. How we get over that? Do we move it to the other weekend and run the risk of people who have come year on year arriving - 10,000 people could turn up with no event to see. The first meeting the committee have can discuss this as well as what was good and what areas we can improve on."
Despite the enormous influx of tourism brought into Llandudno due to the annual event, organisers confirmed next year's Extravaganza was still dependent on support from the community.
Mr Robbins added: "The support of local businesses has been a little better than previous years, but the event costs more and more each year. We always need as much support as possible. Next year is the 25th anniversary and we want to do something quite special [but] it depends entirely on the finances. We would certainly hope so after the success of this year."
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