Comments on the Otago Daily Times website have indicated some thought the $25-a-head ticket price was too high and that there was too little variety of seafood.
Mr Cole said the $25 ticket price was decided upon after working out what it would cost to stage the festival again, covering costs and also looking at ticket prices of other festivals.
"I think compared to anything else, it was on the low side of things. If we didn't have it at that level, we wouldn't have been able to do it again."
It cost $18 to attend the Bluff Oyster Festival, $20 for the Hokonui Moonshiners Festival in Gore, $30 for the Wildfoods Festival on the West Coast and $35 at the Kaikoura Seafest.
When setting the price, the committee did not know how popular the festival was going to be, he said.
As it was part of the Real New Zealand Festival, put in place for the Rugby World Cup, it was allocated $50,000 from the Lottery Grants Board, $20,000 from the council, and $8000 from the Community Trust of Otago.
Much of the funding, about $40,000, went towards the cost of hiring equipment such as the portable toilets, marquees, furniture and generators, he said.
As to the variety of seafood available, he believed there was plenty, but possibly people could not find it in the crowd.
Next time, signs would need to be higher so people could see what was available.
The price of food was pretty good, with $10 for half a crayfish not likely to be found in many other places, Mr Cole said.
Committee members would look at many of those aspects as well as the date when they began to plan the next festival.
"We'll be discussing timing and the entry price is something to look at."
