The struggling Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika may still have a future, after crowd numbers this year came close to expectations.
The event, owned by the Westland District Council, ran at a $68,000 loss last year, attracting only 8500 people, down from almost 11,000 the previous year.
Wildfoods organiser Mike Keenan says a smaller budget this year was based on 7600 people, and 7300 attended Saturday's event.
He says a report the festival commissioned in 2012 showed it injected more than $6 million into the local economy.
Mr Keenan says some of the highlights this year included eating imported scorpions and tarantula spiders.
