Derek Brady squinted up at the bright blue sky above the seafront and council complex of Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
"God is obviously multicultural," he said, as dozens streamed off the Dart trains and buses arriving at the main intersection of the town, boosting the thousands who came to the Festival of World Cultures yesterday.
Mr Brady is the county manager of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, the key sponsor of the three-day festival, now in its fifth year.
A moving spirit behind this increasingly popular celebration of diversity, it is his last festival as county manager, and he admitted to sadness mixed with satisfaction at its success.
The official attendance figure late yesterday afternoon was 180,000, which was expected to reach 200,000 by the time last night's concerts had taken place. This was up from the 2004 figure of 160,000.
A dozen big-name acts, in what is loosely termed world music, headlined the festival, but there was also a big element of public participation, in workshops, markets and street performances.
Workshops, many of which were sold out, were held on everything from hip-hop to Indian adornment, which was the art of sari-wearing and the accompanying make-up.
Dún Laoghaire local Mary Farrell was delighted to learn, at last, how to drape herself correctly in the elaborate garment of purple and green she had been struggling with for years. "A friend brought it back from Sri Lanka, which was very kind, but I've never been able to put it on so that it didn't fall off," she said.
The workshops found eager audiences with children and adults alike, and dance sessions in Brazilian capoeira (a mix between dance and martial art), belly-dancing and Bollywood were a hit.
"It was great," said Pauline Levavasseur (19), from Lisieux in France, of the Bollywood session. "We did all the neck and hand movements that you see in the films, it was real fun."
The festival started on Friday with a free lunchtime performance in the council's Assembly Rooms, by the Singapore-based Chinese Theatre Circle.
Chinese opera used to be a byword for the incomprehensible, but thanks to a sub-title screen the packed audience of all ages could follow the plots of the three vignettes performed to the accompaniment of a 10-piece orchestra featuring traditional instruments.
The opera's paid-for performance on Friday night was a sell-out, as were the majority of the ticket concerts, featuring sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionaird, Daara J and Mercan Dede, the Turkish-Canadian master of Sufi (Islamic) music.
World music expert Susan Barr, formerly host of a Jazz FM programme, said the festival had some of the best acts on the scene. "Personally I loved Daara J. They are the coolest dudes ever. We've been waiting for them in this country for years, and when they finally arrived they were outstanding."
Tribal bellydancing troupe Rashani got the crowd in the rhythm before Fun Da Mental and the Mighty Zulu Nation, one of a number of acts sponsored by the British Council, took the stage just after 5pm.