Amazing weather for CLE's Brite Winter Festival

There was hardly anything winter-like for Saturday’s 7th annual Brite Winter Festival on the west bank of the flats in Cleveland.

 

The free all-day music festival was expected to outperform attendance expectations, thanks to sunny skies and near-record high temperatures in the 60s.

 

“It’s crazy right now. Spring has sprung I feel like,” Kesley Cocher said.

 

Thirty different bands played on six stages through the day. The festival was so packed, at least one food truck ran out of food.

 

“The attendance is really off the hook this year,” organizer Todd Sheppard said. "We probably estimated we’d have between 10 to 15 thousand people come out. I think we can safely say that number is way over 15,000.”

 

Saturday’s gorgeous weather almost made Julie and Pat Bernhardt forget about last year’s festival in Ohio City, where it was snowing with temperatures hovering near zero degrees.

 

“It was 2 below last year,” Julie Bernhardt said, “But it was still a great time because it was up in Ohio City and now they brought it down here and it’s just a great thing for Cleveland.”