About 8,000 people said to heck with the hot weather over the weekend and joined in the fun at the fifth annual Bi-Mart Willamette River Festival at Monteith Riverpark in Albany.

"I think attendance was just as good as last year despite the heat," said Jimmie Lucht, the executive director of the Albany Visitors Association, which was instrumental in putting the event together.

Moving the festival to the park this year also helped encourage attendance, he said.

In prior years, the festival was held two blocks east of the park on Water Avenue at the end of Broadalbin and Ferry streets.

"We moved to the park because there was a stage and more power was available," Lucht said. "We stayed as long as we did at the old site because it was in the downtown area and it was closer to where the merchants were."

The park worked out so well, that is where the event will be next year.

People liked being on the grass and the shade provided by the trees, and the barbecue contestants preferred the overall flatter surface to work on, he said.

The barbecue contest attracted the most festivalgoers. "One team, the Burnt Ends, did a Dutch oven peach cake, and I had a taste and my gosh it was good," Lucht said.

The pie eating and barbecue contests proved popular with the younger crowd.

There were more kids than ever before barbecuing, "and they got pretty creative with their burgers," he said.

Also popular was the young people's texting contest. Participants were handed a message and told to send it as quickly and accurately as possible to a particular phone number.

One disappointment was no one showed up for the battle of the bands. The Rock Band video game, in which participants play various instruments, attracted no takers despite lots of publicity, Lucht said.

"It was requested last year by younger people who worked at the festival," he said. "We'll evaluate whether we try it again next year."