Canberra's Australia Day celebrations on Thursday evening drew roughly the same turnout as the fireworks on previous years, despite the added entertainment of a concert.
An ACT government spokeswoman said about 50,000 people flocked to the shores of Lake Burley Griffin to enjoy its first 'Australia Day in the Capital' concert followed by its annual firework display.
That figure was nearly on par with the 50,000 to 60,000 prediction, which it based on the turnout at last year's fireworks.
But in 2016 the firework display stood alone on the night of January 26, as the national Australia Day concert and Australian of the Year Awards were held the night before.
After the scrapping of the national concert in August, the ACT government took the reins with the announcement of its own concert just 10 days before the event.
The ACT government spokeswoman said she was pleased with the number of people who attended this year's event, 30,000 of whom were at Regatta Point where the concert was held and a further 20,000 were scattered across the lake's shores.
"This is especially considering that last year's Parliament House concert only attracted 15,000," she said,
"In previous years the Australia Day Eve concert typically attracted an audience of 20,000 to 25,000."
But Canberra Liberals tourism spokesman Andrew Wall said the ACT government was "inflating numbers and making them look good" by comparing them to crowd numbers at the fireworks on previous years, saying that only 30,000 were there for the concert.
He said Canberrans "would have been much better off" if Chief Minister Andrew Barr put more effort and time into planning the concert.
The night was a success for Canberra band Hands Like Houses, which played before headliners British India.
Base player Joel Tyrrell admitted he could see gaps of green in between families standing or sitting in front of the stage at Regatta Point.
"But when we started playing it was quite hot, so even by the middle of our set there were more people getting out of the shade and coming down the front, and when the sun went down for British India a lot of people were rockin'," he said.
"We could definitely see people all around the lake. I thought it was a huge success and a lot of fun."