By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

The 19th annual El Reno Burger Day was a success, bringing in $250,000 to downtown businesses and vendors, said Codie Lee-Finnigan, El Reno Main Street director.

“It was just about as big as any one we have had. It was at least the second biggest if not the biggest we’ve had,” said Kent Lagaly, El Reno fire chief and 2007 King of the Big Burger.

Thanks to the weather holding its rain and an increase in entertainment and vendors, an estimated 25,000 people roamed down Rock Island and Bickford avenues Saturday, said Lee-Finnigan.

“That is up from last year’s attendance,” she said. “I think it is up about 5,000.”

Lee-Finnigan said she couldn’t be happier with the way the logistics of the festival came off and said it never could have happened were it not for the volunteers.

The centennial year festival brought both old and new elements together with the highlight always being the 750-pound, 8.5-foot-round onion fried burger.

“It was different this year being the centennial year and Cinco de Mayo — we had some great performers,” Lee-Finnigan said. “We had Edgar Cruz for Cinco de Mayo and we had the American Indian dancers and the Ancient Radio Players, which were part of celebrating the centennial.”

Next to the big burger, Lee-Finnigan said the car show was the biggest attraction of the event.

“We had more than 150 cars in the car show ranging from Corvettes to a DeLorian that I didn’t get to see,” Lee-Finnigan said.

With 25 crafters, 11 food vendors, 17 games and rides plus entertainers and the car show, Lee-Finnigan said the only place to look now is forward.

“Next year is the 20th anniversary, so we are going to do that even bigger,” she said. “We are going to start planning that now. We are talking about Burger Day quilts, we are talking about NASCAR for the car show. We are going to do it big because our 20th anniversary is a big milestone.”