The report received by councillors at an ordinary meeting this week revealed overall crowds were down from 15,500 people in 2009, to 13,998 this year.

After dwindling crowds over several years, the council last year undertook a review of the 58-year-old event.

Changes introduced this year included shifting the festival parade from Sturt Street back to its original Wendouree Parade location.

The shift could not prevent a 25 per cent drop in parade crowds.

But the council's destination and connections director George Sossi said days of rain accounted for why more people had not shown up.

"It was the only reason, because we had a lot of feedback from the community that moving the festival back to the lake was the right thing to do."

Only 22 per cent of attendees visited the Begonia display at the conservatory.

"That's an interesting trend because it's certainly over the years tended to be about that. It's almost as though the begonia brand is bigger than the begonias themselves."

The council spent $218,00 on the event, including $133,000 in operational costs and $61,638 on marketing.

For that, it estimates an economic benefit to the city of $1.6 million.

He said the council was committed to the festival in the future.

"Every year we're building on it. The disappointing thing was, because of the weather, some of the stuff we wanted to try out (this year), we couldn't do."