Arts, Beats & Eats is 'Major Incident Free'

Before Arts, Beats & Eats producer Jon Witz introduced the last band of the Labor Day weekend festival, he thanked the Royal Oak Police and Fire Departments for keeping the four-day event safe.

"We've been major incident free all weekend," Witz said before introducing Morris Day and the Time. "I'm not supposed to be political but I think the millage makes sense. That's just me. I had to say it."

Witz, of course, was referring to , which goes before voters on Nov. 6.

The ABE mogul also told the crowd that the 2012 attendance was the second highest on record, although he did not reveal the final count.

"If we could have turned the temperatures down on Friday, we would have hit number one," Witz said.

Less-than-ideal weather definitely has an impact on attendance. About 330,000 people attended the festival in downtown Royal Oak in 2011, officials reported, which was down 22 percent from 2010's record-breaking attendance of 423,000. The smaller crowd was attributed to the extreme Labor Day weekend weather - from to and cool - last year.