Festivities director Amanda Sharp said: "On the whole things have gone well, certainly better than we expected in some cases given the current climate."

The Festivities had expected to make a loss this year, and they probably will do, but the loss will be smaller than first feared – thanks partly to huge success of the opening fireworks concert at Goodwood.

The overall financial result won't be known for several months.

"But it is going to be a much better result than we thought it was going to be.

"At some events attendances have been a little disappointing, but you will get that at any festival. But the great thing for us was we had such a tremendous start to the festival with a record attendance at the fireworks concert."

The event is crucial to the overall success of the festival. The weather was great; and attendances were significantly up.

Last autumn the Festivities debated the format of the fireworks concert but decided in difficult times to stick with the existing tribute band format: "We haven't discussed it again yet, but on the face of it the formula appeared to appeal and there would be no obvious reason to change it."

Amanda added: "One or two of our regular concerts in the cathedral were slightly down, such as the Black Dyke. And the schools concert was badly down this year.

"I can't think of any reason why because it is a mums' and dads' concert. It's difficult to get a clear picture overall when you get strange results like this."

Last year it had an attendance of 507; this year just 360.

On the plus side, the Nicola Benedetti, the Chichester Singers and the Hugh Masekela concerts were well attended, and the Trio Mediaeval and Vivaldi's Women concert, a departure for the Festivities, also did well.

"One disappointment was the James Bond evening (music from the Bond films performed by the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera). I don't know whether we got the marketing wrong. I can't help feeling we did.

"Initially we marketed it as the music of James Bond and it didn't seem interesting to a lot of people.

"Then we pushed it as the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera that hadn't been to Chichester before. That didn't seem to attract people too much, either."

Overall, the Festivities speakers did well, though again with some disappointments, perhaps among the more specialist interest events. The Last Days of the Romanovs attracted a smallish audience.

"And Gyles Brandreth was absolutely fabulous, but didn't get a great audience."

The overall result will be a deficit, because of the increasing difficulty in obtaining sponsorship.

But as Amanda said, they have at least been able to enjoy increased box-office income over the years to set against the fall in sponsorship: "But the cost of putting on the festival exceeds the amount of money we have been able to raise. Thank goodness for the success of the fireworks concert."

She confirmed there was no threat to the Festivities taking place next year.