Under sunny skies and despite an abundance of events on Whidbey over the weekend, attendance was strong for this year’s Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival.

“It went really well,” said Festival Association President Mike Dessert. “It was hotter than heck on Saturday.”

While there is no official count as to how many people attended the festival, Vice President Carol Moliter said numbers seemed similar to previous years.

Moliter said she watched the crowds from her vantage point at the information booth.

“There was a steady amount of people heading down the hill,” she said. “I was watching the people as they left and, oh my, they came to shop.”

Many of the vendors reported having one of their best weekends of the summer.

“As a vendor, we did really well,” Dessert said.

Higher temperatures on Saturday drew the masses while fog drew slightly smaller numbers on Sunday morning.

As soon as it cleared up Sunday, people came out, said Moliter.

The festival was rearranged a bit this year, widening the overall booth areas and providing more access space to businesses downtown.

“The one thing we got at the info booth was how much bigger the festival was this year,” Moliter said. “It looked so much more open.”

There were also concessions made during the ongoing debate between the festival and downtown merchants. Earlier this year the festival had said all vendors, including merchants, had to follow the same juried guidelines.

The outcome for this year was that merchants could purchase a booth space, but they didn’t have to go through the same juried process and didn’t have to pay the same commission as the visiting vendors.

“It was a step in the right direction,” Moliter said. “There’s always things we can do better.”

Preliminary counts show proceeds from the festival in the ballpark with previous years.

All funds raised at the festival go back into the community through grants and scholarships.

The festival association begins taking grant applications soon. Deadline is in October and grants will be awarded in early December.

For information on applying for a grant, go to www.coupevillefestival.com