Celebrating its 30th year, the festival packed into Bulli Showground over four days of fun, frivolity and music. 

Although final numbers were still being tallied on Sunday, festival artistic director David De Santi said he expected final day walk-ups would push the total four-day attendance to around 11,500 people.

"We've definitely had the biggest four-day attendance in the festival's history, passing 11,000 for the first time," Mr De Santi said. 

"We got off to a great start with big crowds on Thursday and Friday, but the weekend was really huge. The word obviously got out that Bulli Showground was the place to be.’’

With 180 artists, including 15 international acts, the festival catered to a huge array of musical preferences, which Mr De Santi said had obviously paid off.

‘‘We have had people of all ages, from all over NSW and many from interstate,’’ he said.

‘‘I even heard about a couple who flew over from New Zealand just to come to our festival."

Big crowds flocked through the gates to catch renowned headline acts such as Eric Bogle, Stephan Pigram and legendary American singer-songwriter Kristina Olsen.

"You expect the main acts to attract big audiences, but I got just as big a kick out of seeing lots of young people getting involved in the Sea Shanty sessions,’’ Mr De Santi said.

He paid particular tribute to the 400-strong army of volunteers who helped run the festival.

The event kicked off on Thursday with a traditional Italian lunch and music, while Friday’s full day of festivities were followed by the Pearl Party and Pearl Ball.

Acts over the four days spanned such styles as bluegrass, blues, folk, celtic, dance, gypsy, indie, world, spoken word and kids music.