People watch as a Jeep splashes through the mud pit at the annual festival at Cooper's Lake Campground June 8.

Attendance at this year's Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival was down slightly from last year, according to numbers provided Wednesday by organizers, but 2018's celebration of the Jeep's heritage was bigger than 2016.

Festival Director Patti Jo Lambert said inclement weather was likely behind the dip in attendance. According to organizers, 24,639 people attended the weekend-long event.

That includes 2,348 Jeeps which were registered to participate in activities — slightly fewer than the 2,350 Jeeps which were registered last year, and about 10 percent more than were registered for the 2016 festival.

Rain in the forecast on Saturday hurt ticket sales for the Cooper's Lake Campground events, Lambert said, and rainstorms that blanketed the area on Sunday also depressed turnout.

Still, Lambert said, the festival appears to be on a positive trajectory, with Jeeps from 30 states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec represented this year.

“That's exciting,” Lambert said. “We've never had 30 states except for 2015, when the Guinness (Book of World Records) parade was held.”

Organizers also see much to be pleased with when it comes to sponsorship and business involvement, she said. Lambert said comparing aerial photographs of 2013 — the festival's first year at the campground — with this year provides a stark example of the increase in organizations involved.

“I think we've doubled the number of vendors in five years,” Lambert said.

According to the statistics provided by organizers, the festival hosted 122 merchandise vendors, 15 flea market vendors and 17 food vendors this year.

The event also continues to show an impressive ability to draw first-time Jeepers in, with nearly 30 percent of this year's registered Jeeps attending for the first time, according to organizers; 11 percent had attended the event every year, from 2011 to 2018.

Lambert called that a function of organizers' drive to expand the offerings, particularly the introduction of new trail riding opportunities over the past several years.

“Definitely the off-road trails are of interest to our participants,” she said. “Continuing to expand our trail offerings is definitely an objective for us. That was probably our No. 1 priority in terms of growth.”

With the 10th anniversary on the horizon in 2020, Lambert said organizers will likely begin “dual planning” for next year and the anniversary celebration this August.

That's about the time she expects the Friends of Bantam Jeep Association, which runs the festival, to begin talking publicly about monetary awards that have been handed out for the past two years to nonprofit and civic organizations.

Last year, the association awarded a total of $30,000 to 25 groups; in 2016, the association awarded $20,000 to 19 organizations.

Lambert said it was too early to say how much money might be awarded this year, as the group still has accounting work to complete before it closes the book on 2018.