By Kyle Ireland

Record breaking BeachFest wraps in Parksville

Aug 20, 2016 | 6:39 AM

PARKSVILLE — This is the final weekend for what has been a record-shattering BeachFest in Parksville.

The record attendance figure of 104,427 visitors set last year, was broken with 10 days to go in this year’s festival.

BeachFest Society President Cheryl Dill hasn’t ruled out hitting the 140,000 mark.

“I don’t think it’s out of reach. I wouldn’t be surprised if overall we’re looking at about a 35 percent increase over last year, which is just phenomenal. We’re really just clapping our hands and just thanking everybody for their support. This event really has a huge impact on central Vancouver Island and beyond,” said Dill.

The final weekend has an art show and live music at the Community Park, with the final order of business being the awarding the final honours for the Great Canadian Sand Sculpting competition.

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“I’ll tally for the People’s Choice Award, which is the most coveted award to the sand sculptors. They’re waiting to find out what the public thought, what was their favourite sculpture.”

Partial proceeds from donations received at the sand sculpting display will fund several community groups, many of which had volunteers greeting visitors throughout the festival.