More than 20,000 people lined the streets to watch Sunday’s street parade and stayed around to enjoy a day filled with activities for the whole family.

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Blessing of the Fleet Festival chairman Phil Brown said this year’s event was one of the best in recent history.

“It was fabulous,” Phil told the Times.

While it is hard to fully gauge numbers, Phil said the committee estimates the crowd may have been the biggest yet.

“I have spoken to other members of Rotary who were there and they all say it had to be one of the biggest events they have seen,” Phil said.

“I was in front of the Civic Centre and it looked like a huge crowd.

“For the first time this year we had a photographer (Times editor Stuart Carless) go up in a helicopter to get aerial shots so we will be able to get a more accurate head count from the images.”

While the committee is still tallying up the number, they said feedback from the event has been overwhelmingly positive.

“The whole day was fabulous - the weather stuck around for us, it was a beautiful day,” Phil said.

“The entertainment was fabulous, the food was great.

“All the boats were well wonderfully decorated – a real effort went in to every part of the festival.”

New to this year’s festival was a specially organised kids’ area filled with entertainment and activities throughout the day inside the Civic Centre.

“Kids loved it,” Phil said.

“Pirate Pete was a hit and there were lots of activities for the kids to do.

“It gave the adults a chance to go out and enjoy the entertainment while the kids were having fun.”

Another highlight of the festival was the fireworks show held over Ulladulla Harbour on Sunday night.

“I was looking out across the sea and there was nature’s own fireworks going on,” Phil said.

“It was a worrying moment but the storm stayed out at sea and the fireworks went off tremendously well.

“Eric from Sunset Fireworks is really enthusiastic about being part of the Blessing of the Fleet and pulled off a really good show.

“The feedback has been that the fireworks show was the best seen in years.”

With this year’s festival considered such a huge hit, the committee is already turning their attention towards next year’s event.

“We are trying to make it a little bit better each year and it is certainly getting better each year,” Phil said.

“Now the challenge is to try and make it bigger and better again next year.”

The success of the event each year comes down to one thing according to Phil – the effort put in by volunteers in the local community.

“I take my hat off to all the volunteers who make it happen,” Phil said.

“They put there up every year and without them, the festival could not happen.

“I’d also like to make a big tribute to Sylvia Franklin and Wayne Fry who did a great job stepping in to help with the running of the event – it really came off well.”

The Times has photos from this year’s festival on pages 18 and 19 and will feature several galleries with hundreds of photos and, for the first time this year, will include video footage of the parade online at www.ulladullatimes.com.au