They came, they saw, they danced, they drove dog sleds, they threw axes, they ate maple taffy, they took in fireworks and parades, they wandered through a scene of intricately carved snow sculptures....

It’s a list that seems to go on forever; events held over the last five days that were part of the annual Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous festival.

“Because of the warm weather, we had a great turnout,” Rachel Morgan, the executive director of the Rendezvous society, said this morning.

Estimates on the number of people who came out to the many events over the weekend haven’t been done yet.

However, Morgan said, Shipyards Park had the biggest turnout it’s seen for the Rendezvous at night event Saturday evening, with some 2,000 people watching the fire dancers, followed by an “incredible” fireworks show that lit up the downtown sky, and Grand Analog performing in the main tent at the park.

Many also took time to wander through the site featuring the nine snow sculptures created for this year’s international competition, commenting on the difficulty the snow carvers likely had, given the unseasonably warm weather this year.

With temperatures coming in at above 0, Morgan said snow carvers “made the best of it,” using tarps to protect their artwork from the sun until they were finished and judging was done.

The Finnish team also had the added challenge of having to scrape graffiti from their piece after “Bri. Jimmy,” “Tiana Leash” and “Watson Lake” were carved into the team’s block of snow last week along with some spray painting.

A photo of two people standing atop the carving has been circulating on Facebook and drawing numerous shares and comments from local residents apologizing to the Finnish team.

They are noting the act as “stupid, (and) senseless” and pointing out this is the second year in a row the Rendezvous snow carvings have been vandalized.

Morgan said Rendezvous officials will address the issue when they review this year’s festival. She also pointed out those believed to have caused the damage were kicked out of the park earlier by a security guard who was working there from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m.

As she noted, even if there had been more security guards working longer hours in the park, it would be virtually impossible to police the entire park at all times.

“We did the best we can in terms of security,” Morgan said Friday.

“Hopefully, these things don’t happen, but they do occasionally, especially when you get people down there drinking in the park.”

By the weekend, all the graffiti had been dealt with and the carvings were finished with spectators oohing and ahhing at the various sculptures.

Those vying for the title of 2015 Rendezvous Queen or Sourdough Sam were already deep into the competition by the time most Yukoners started their Rendezvous celebrations.

Ultimately, all that effort paid off for Shirley Chua-Tan, who was crowned Rendezvous Queen on Saturday night at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre, and “The Punk Danther,” who was knighted as this year’s Sourdough Sam.

Numerous Queen and Sam events were held leading up to the crowning and knighting.

Five Rendezvous shows and events were sold out over the weekend. Those included the new addition of Our Legends Medicine, which featured First Nations performers.

Both Fred Penner performances in the main tent sold out, with a number of parents from Whitehorse who didn’t get tickets for that show opting to make the drive to Marsh Lake for his performance at the community centre there.

Also sold out was the Superstar event and the newly added Steam Punk Ball.

“We had a lot of fun,” Morgan said of the newly added events.

While not everyone was able to get tickets to some of the events, many residents took in the long list of free activities, which came thanks to a crew of 300-plus volunteers.

Volunteers are continuing to work on clean-up today, and organizers will soon review this year’s festival looking at what went well and what can be improved for next year.

Then in about a month, organizers will return to planning mode for the 2016 festival, Morgan said.