MARITIME FESTIVAL DRAWS
RECORD CROWDS TO DULUTH

(Duluth, MN) – This weekend’s Duluth Maritime Festival shaped up to be the largest three-day event in the Minnesota waterfront city’s history.

Thanks to the majestic lure of three historic tall ships, the U.S. Brig Niagara, Pride of Baltimore II and the Madeline, business activity and buzz surpassed even that of Duluth’s famous Grandma’s Marathon and the Bayfront Blues Festival according to merchants and organizers. (Photo courtesy of Northern Images Photography.)

Visit Duluth, which brought in the tall ships, announced the following attendance estimates Sunday. Conservatively 125,000 festival goers passed through the grounds at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center while nearly 40,000 ship tours were conducted on board the vessels. The festival attracted an estimated 75,000 out-of-town visitors who left behind approximately $10.5 million in Duluth.

Tall ship crews compared the crowd to New York City’s Fourth of July harbor rendezvous.

“Businesses are telling us their traffic is easily 30% above anything they’ve ever experienced in a single weekend. Thank you to all festival goers for their patience with the large crowds and warm weather. Those who were patient treated themselves to a once in a lifetime experience,” said Terry Mattson, President/CEO of Visit Duluth.

Gates opened at 8 a.m. again Sunday with people in lines as early as 5 a.m. As of Sunday morning nearly all 25,000 passport tickets printed had been sold. Three-day festival passport tickets allowed admission aboard the ships. Anyone with an un-stamped passport can receive a purchase refund. A single ship tour constitutes a stamped passport not eligible for refund.

You can return un-stamped passports through mail only by sending them to Visit Duluth, 21 West Superior Street, Suite 100, Duluth, MN 55802. Please include a copy of your credit card receipt and your contact information.

Tentatively, the Madeline sets sail out of Duluth at 8 a.m. on Monday. The Pride of Baltimore II will also leave sometime Monday.

The Niagara is doing an already-sold-out day sail Monday at 11 a.m. returning to the dock at approximately 5 p.m. and another sold-out- sail on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Niagara will depart Duluth Tuesday. Times are approximate and subject to revisions.

Preliminary discussions are already in the works for a similar tall ship rendezvous as early as 2010 but no specific plans are yet announced.