This year's Capital Ex brought more than 772,000 people through the turnstiles, the third-highest attendance for the 10-day Edmonton exhibition.

This was the second summer the festival was held without its traditional Klondike Days name.

Some blamed the name change on a drop in attendance in 2006, but this summer's numbers prove it's about a great event, not a name, said exhibition spokeswoman Bonni Clark.

"People weren't coming to Klondike Days because it was so cool of a name, they were coming because of the programming we were offering."

Good weather and features such as the multimillion-dollar production Walking With Dinosaurs also helped boost numbers this year, she said.

The exhibition wrapped up on Saturday.

In 2006, the same year organizers changed the name, ticket sales for the 10-day fair reached 688,369, down about 15 per cent from record-breaking attendance in 2005.

Klondike Days began as a fall fair in 1879, and became a summer festival in 1901, finally settling in at its current location at the Northlands in 1910.

In 1962, the fair adopted the Klondike Days gold rush theme.