K-Days attracts nearly 800,000 visitors

Despite a rainy week and a violent stabbing on the midway, almost 45,000 more people came out to the K-Days grounds this year over 2014.

The final tally for 2015 was 785,290 visitors.

The highest attendance was in 2005, when more than 810,000 people came out.

It was a challenging year for the festival with several rainy days and the implementation of new safety measures, including metal detectors, after three men were stabbed last week.

Northlands president and CEO Tim Reid said live entertainment was one of the reasons so many people came to the festival, something organizers hope to build on next year.

An other reason may have been the economy.

"With the economy where it is and the dollar where it is, I think people realized that staying in Edmonton is a great place to have a vacation," he said.

Reid said he believes a lot of the new visitors were Edmontonians or Albertans and hopes they'll be coming back.

As for changes next year, Reid hopes to move some K-Days events from Northlands to other venues in the city.

"You're going to see going into 2016 [K-Days] step off campus and partner with other Edmontonians and other groups in the city to make this a city-wide event.

"It's almost a right of passage in the summer time and I think we've got to make this as big as it can possibly be."