Went for the first time in probably 15 years as Mrs ASE's firm was sponsoring one of the road side display 'Imagination stations'; the event was jam packed, huge crowd and many seemed to be in a giving mood judging by the amount of coin I saw being handed over for donation purposes.
Interesting observation from some Brit/Scottish friends of ours who've been in Canada maybe 10-12 years now. Both commented had a crowd that size gathered in Britain it almost certainly would have spawned mass problems with public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, resulting in a heavy riot & mounted police presence. They - and we frankly - found it almost eerie that 30,000+ people made barely a sound as they happily but very very quietly enjoyed the day. As my buddy said in his heavy Scottish brogue "aye...typically Canadian, apparently".
As an aside there were some damn good artwork on display. For the small size of this town there is a_lot of talent here.....