TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Earlier in the year it seems that the Canal Fest of the Tonawandas wasn't going to happen.
But with a little effort from Albany, the festival continued and the turnout was big.
"Approximately 180,000 people came to our event," said Peter Chenier, the Canal Fest President. "It was amazing."
New York State Senator Rob Ortt and Assemblyman Bill Conrad were able to secure the necessary funding with Gov. Kathy Hochul's office.
"It gave us some financial support," Chenier said. "They gave us some guidance on how to streamline what we need to streamline for organizational efforts, I just can't say enough about their support."
Chenier says work will begin on planning the 2024 Canal Fest soon, but it's unclear if the same financial issues will carry over next years.
"We're going to start next month, reinvigorating the event," Chenier said.
Chenier says the classic car show earlier in the week was a big success, along with the vendor market on Main Street.
City of Tonawanda Police only reported two arrests during the festival.
"If you would have told me last week our first arrest wasn't going to be till Saturday at 7:30, I would have said that was pretty good," City of Tonawanda Police Captain Fredric Foels said.
On Saturday night, three City of Tonawanda police officers were injured after breaking up a fight between a festival patron and a midway ride operator. DeVante D. Henley of Buffalo was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, attempted assault of a police officer, and harassment.
Around 3 a.m. Sunday, City of Tonawanda police arrested Marc R. Nasca. Nasca allegedly drove his vehicle over the Renaissance Bridge from North Tonawanda into the midway section of the festival on the city of Tonawanda side.
Police said Nasca's blood alcohol content was 0.17 when he took a test at the station. He was charged with DWI, operating a vehicle over .08, and failure to obey a traffic control device.