Organisers have estimated that almost half a million people attended the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last month.

The festival's total attendance - 465,000 - was up 69% on the 275,000 who visited in 2005 and three times more than the 150,000 who attended the inaugural, five-day festival in 2002. A crowd of 253,000 were estimated to have attended the free access Family Festival Street Fair on Saturday, May 6.

"We were thrilled with the turnout to all of the festival events this year," said co-founder Jane Rosenthal. "Attendance surpassed our expectations. One of our core missions for the Festival is to bring an audience to filmmakers and New Yorkers and visitors alike turned out in droves to take in films and interact with our filmmakers."

Meanwhile, the 2007 festival has been set for April 25 - May 6.

Click here for Digital Spy's coverage of Tribeca 2006.