ELKHART - This weekend’s Elkhart Jazz Festival turned out to be one of the most successful in recent memory.

The latest edition of the annual event saw a spike, not only in attendance, but in the diversity of those in attendance as well, highlighting the continuing resurgence of the event.

“We had a nice, broad demographic,” said Gina Leichty, an organizer of the event. She noted that there appeared to be a lot wider group of people in attendance than in previous years.

Simply the number of people that came to the Festival was also up from the past. Leichty said she’d heard estimates that there was the potential for a 25 percent increase on last year’s total, and that numbers would most likely be finalized later this afternoon.

Just as important, Leichty also said the Festival experienced no hitches. Patrons were well-behaved and weather was not an issue. Any rain that could have potentially fallen held off and the heat gave the audiences a bit of a break after a blistering few days earlier in the week.

“It was phenomenal,” Leichty said of the 25th installment of Elkhart’s big weekend. Though just a couple years removed from serious debate about the importance of the Festival, the health and vitality of the event have returned.