As headliner Coldplay prepared to wrap up British Columbia's biggest concert event of the summer Sunday evening, the post mortems are already being written on the fledgling Pemberton Festival.

Speaking to reporters, organizer Shane Bourbonnais said that despite the problems caused by traffic congestion, he hoped that the four-day festival will be back next year. "Every great festival has its hiccups in the beginning,'' he said.

On Sunday, Bourbonnais said he has eight acts lined up who want to be headliners next year, but didn't elaborate.

Attracted by the opportunity to drink beer and hang out while watching top bands like Coldplay, Tom Petty and Jay-Z, the festival attracted roughly 40,000 music fans to Pemberton, a quiet farming community located about 35 kilometers north of Whistler.

On Saturday, the event featured strong performances by Petty and The Tragically Hip. Both seemed to be pulling out all the stops to please the crowd.

By 5:00 p.m. Sunday, the festival appeared to have gone ahead without any major setbacks.

But whether or not it will be repeated depends on meetings to be held in the coming days between Bourbonnais, the RCMP and community leaders.

Local residents say the festival's major achievement has been to take Pemberton out of the shadow of Whistler, its more illustrious neighbour to the south. Some are hoping that it will become a regular event.

"I'd say it's been positive,'' said Irv John, vice-president of the Pemberton Legion.

John said the traffic congestion has been a "real negative." However, he hopes that if Pemberton City council and the Squamish Lilooet Regional District can work together, those issues will be resolved.

As a long-time resident of the area, John said he would like to see more community involvement if the festival is repeated. That would give local farmers more opportunity to benefit from the sale of produce grown in the region. "People were afraid that they were going to lose money," he said.

Tara Jean Wilkin, a radio reporter who covered the festival for 95 Crave, said she thought it was a bit disorganized. "There definitely hasn't been as much security as I thought there would be."

Still, Wilkin liked what she heard out on the concert stages. "The music has been awesome,'' she said.