Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival concluded its third year with a “bigger and better show,” with event organisers claiming the festival continues to be “an economic stimulus for the cultural sector and source of empowerment” for small businesses.

The three-night festival in Nassau attracted an estimated 28,000 patrons, a 12 per cent increase over last year, with Saturday’s event drawing the largest crowd of 13,000 people, according to a press release.

This comes after the event’s kick off in Grand Bahama last month saw a dismal turnout.

“Staging the event with an all Bahamian team, Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival out performed itself this year with a spectacular show of music, culture and vibes,” noted Bahamas National Festival Commission Chairman Paul Major in the press release.

“I could not be more proud of the show we put on. Our production team promised to amp it up every night, and they delivered. I can confidently say we are well on our way towards fulfilling the mandate handed down to us by the prime minister back in October 2013. His vision has once again proven to be sound,” Mr Major said.

He added: “Last year we started the move towards privatisation aggressively with Road Fever. And with the Road Fever Association taking responsibility for more and more aspects of the event, this year the event continued to grow. This year we continued to push the privatisation objective of the commission by working with a private promoter.”

The government said this year it would cut back on its subsidy for the controversial event.

For the inaugural festival in 2015, the government spent $11.3m, going over its initial budget of $9m, with the total cost of the first carnival $12.9m, with the rest covered by sponsors.

Last year, the total cost was $9.8m with a government subsidy of $8.1m.

In February, Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the Christie administration had budgeted $5m for Junkanoo Carnival.