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Craig — The Grand Olde West Days committee is pleased with the results of their 18th annual three-day event.

"I'd say that it turned out pretty darn good," GOWD committee treasurer Carol Wilson said. "We had a lot of people show up to everything, and everybody had a lot of fun."

Wilson said the height of attendance was at Monday's daylong street festival on Yampa Avenue, which attracted an estimated 2,000 people.

"It was a great response," she said. "The one drawback was that all the wind on Monday caused a big branch to break off from a tree in the park, and it fell on one of the tents. Nobody was hurt, but it was a little scary. A lot of people decided to start heading home about then, but fortunately, it was 4 in the afternoon and the day was already winding down."

Other weekend events drew sizable crowds.

"The Collin Raye concert had a good turnout, especially considering that we only started selling tickets eight days before," Wilson said. "There were about 750 people there, but we had hoped to have 1,000. We should've started promoting it earlier."

Grand Olde West Days T-shirts were a popular part of the festival.

"The T-shirt sales were phenomenal," committee member Katrina Springer said. "We pre-sold 600 of them at $15 apiece, so we made a lot of money on them. Something new that we did was that businesses that bought six or more shirts got their logos printed on the sleeves. It was a great way to get them excited. People who wore their shirts to certain events got discounts, so we saw a lot of people wearing them over the weekend."

GOWD shirts still are available for $10 each. Call Springer at 824-5846, or visit Serendipity Coffee Shop, 576 Yampa Ave., for more information.

The GOWD committee will soon meet to compare notes on planning next year's event.

"We talk about what we could have done better and come up with ideas for next year," Wilson said. "We don't have anything locked in just yet, but we'll focus on coming up with fundraisers and things like that.

"We'll try to do bookings earlier, and schedule everything better so we can get even more people. It's a learning process. We never give up trying to put on a great event. Every year, we try to build up for the next time."