Organizers say festival ran 11 days and sold about 104,000 tickets; new red carpet guest announced

Festival organizers said this year’s event ran 11 days — the first time the festival extended that long — and reported a rise in ticket sales compared with last year. “We did. We sold about 20,000 more tickets than this last weekend. So, we went from 90,000 tickets last year to a total of about 104,000 this year,” a festival presenter said.

An attendee or colleague offered encouragement to the incoming director: “You’re going to be great. It's fun, man. It's really fun,” the colleague said.

Presenters credited a leadership change for some of the new style on the program, saying Coach Joins added his “twist and kind of fingerprints on the event” after taking over from Dr. Qualls. They also announced that Charles Pulium will appear on the red carpet show and predicted he will be “fantastic.”

During a brief recognition, a moderator asked veterans aged 100 or older who could stand to do so and asked those unable to stand to raise their hand; a count of attendees in that group was mentioned informally.

Why it matters: The longer run and higher ticket sales reflect higher attendance and revenue potential for organizers and vendors. The transcript does not include detailed finance reports, ticket revenue totals, or contracts; no formal vote or budget allocation related to the festival appears in the provided segments.