This year's Floriade festival has broken attendance records, with more than 480,000 people stepping through the turnstiles and past the tulips.
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Sunshine, interactive displays, famous facesand a first-time appearance of furry four-legged friends helped drive this year's attendance to 481,854, the largest number of visitors to the springtime festival in its 27-year history.
Minister for Tourism and Events Andrew Barr credited spring weather and a jam-packed program of fun, interactive events for the increased foot traffic at this year's event, which ended on Sunday.
The figure is more than 7 per cent higher than last year's attendance. More than 10,000 extra people visited this year than in the previous record-setting year of 2010.
Floriade spokeswoman Adelina La Vita agreed excellent weather, an exciting program of events and activities, popular personalities and greater interactivity helped lure people out of their houses and into Commonwealth Park.
"We had excellent weather for most of Floriade, which really helps bring people out and about," she said.
"We also had a lot of things to see and do in the park ... and the incredible design of the garden beds."
The RSPCA's first Dogs Day Out event and Independent Property's My Cubby House Rocks initiative particularly appealed to families and added depth to this year's program, Ms La Vita said.
Hundreds of dogs and their owners attended Floriade last Tuesday, October 7, as part of the RSPCA-run event, which raised more than $4000 for the charity.
My Cubby House Rocks raised more than $45,000 for Boundless Canberra and The Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
"It helps families stay longer in the park and come back again and again," she said.
"Everyone seemed to be a bit more jovial after interactions with the dogs and puppies – it definitely elevated the happiness in the park that day."
Mr Barr said preparations were already under way for the 2015 festival.
