SEBASTIAN — Ticket sales for last weekend’s Sebastian Clambake Festival were up nearly 2 percent over last year, according to organizers.
The festival took in $152,000 from tickets over the course of the 3-day event, Anjani Cirillo said Wednesday.
However, the cost of running the festival also increased, “but that’s alright,” Cirillo said.
She added that it would be a couple weeks before the organizers know just how much money they will have left over to split amongst six non-profits.
“We have a lot of bills yet,” Cirillo said, noting that they will also have to purchase a couple new fryers and replace a couple tents, which blew away during the festival.
The Sebastian Clambake Festival is an annual event at Riverview Park that serves as a fund-raiser for area non-profits. This year’s beneficiaries include the VFW Post 10210, Sebastian Sharks Youth Football and Cheerleading Association, Boys and Girls Club of Indian River County, By the River Senior Housing, Professional Animal World’s H.A.L.O. Rescue, and Sebastian Soccer Association.
Organizers will present checks to the groups at an upcoming Sebastian City Council meeting, Cirillo said.
“This year was the best,” Cirillo said, not just because of the money it raised, but also because of the large crowds all three days and how well everything operated.
There was just one small snag during the event Saturday, when the burners went out at the clam chowder booth, causing a line to stack up. Other than that, all the food booths operated smoothly and kept the lines flowing without getting backed up.
Cirillo will meet with the other organizers in the coming days to do a “post mortem” of the festival to determine how they can improve the event for next year.
“You want to make it good for the people who come,” Cirillo said.
As for the number of people who attended the festival – that’s anyone’s guess, according to Cirillo.
“I have no clue,” she said, noting she could guess, but “I’m just so far off.”
It is safe to say that several thousand people attended over the course of the festival – but with five or six entrances and no way really to track visitors, an accurate count might be hard to come by.
“I can’t imagine,” Cirillo added.
