Record numbers of people gathered Friday and Saturday to celebrate the 34th annual Guinea Jubilee.

"We were extremely pleased," said Tara Thomas, who chairs the Guinea Jubilee Committee, along with her husband, Brook. "Everything seemed to come together from the weather to the great number of people who attended—all with very few problems," she added.

According to Thomas, about 8,000 people attended the festival on Friday and as many as 12,000 were estimated on Saturday. "These are record numbers for us," Thomas said. "We were ecstatic to realize we had that many people."

The only thing of any issue throughout the entire weekend was some traffic congestion after Saturday’s Abingdon Firemen’s Parade. "We’ll have that smoothed out next year," she said.

Parade winners

The following groups were winners in Saturday’s Abingdon Firemen’s Parade: Church/school youth group—Achilles Elementary School (first) and Union Baptist Church (second);...