"Every year, we work, work, work, especially Wednesday to Saturday. It's crazy," said Valene Nobriga, whose family operates a small flower business. "Monday after Merrie Monarch, we don't take any orders. We just sleep."

The regret is that — after months of anticipation and preparation — it's over.

"We have just always wanted to get here and this year we finally did," said Cathy Morinaga of Honolulu, whose auntie and uncle scored scarce tickets to the hula competition.

Yesterday morning, the family was planning to attend the annual parade and then do some shopping, but Morinaga was already feeling a little sad.

"Four days seemed like a long time, but it's gone so fast. The hula we've seen is just so incredible, I don't want it to end."

The effects of the Merrie Monarch Festival on Hilo are difficult to quantify, but they are profound.

"The better question might be to ask what part of Hilo the Merrie Monarch does NOT impact. We'd have a much shorter answer," said Richard Nelson, president-elect of the local Chamber of Commerce and owner of a marketing firm, Hawaii Bizlink, which promotes Island products at trade shows around the world.

Nelson had not seen exact statistics, but, he said "the hotels are filled, the flights are booked, the restaurants are packed and the supermarkets are busy."

Na'alehu artist Nancy Lake says the official Merrie Monarch craft fair is the best one of the year for her — both economically and because it's a chance to spend time with a variety of interesting people, from international visitors to dancers who drop by to purchase one of her "Hula is life. Life is hula" wall plaques.

Her husband, Dennis, is an 'ukulele maker who enjoys the chance to talk about the instruments with knowledgeable folks.

The sale at the Ahfook-Chinen Civic Center has become a brisk marketplace for handmade Hawaiian musical instruments, hula implements, and carved and woven items, many of them purchased by members of Japanese halau, who visit the event in large numbers, have deep pockets and do lots of shopping.

But when clothing designer Sig Zane speaks of the effect of Merrie Monarch on Hilo, he's not just talking about the immense spike in business at his downtown Hilo retail store, or the customers who discover his designs and then continue to visit online, or the many hula schools that use his dresses in performance or as halau uniforms.

Zane says the Merrie Monarch is a sort of social ecotourism event. "It really showcases Hilo's lifestyle," he said, mentioning the flower markets, the okazu-ya and other small businesses that illustrate the influence of Japanese immigrants on the area, as well as the colors and geographical features that differ from the typical white-sand beaches elsewhere in Hawai'i.

More important still to Zane is the cultural critical mass formed by the concentration of hula experts in one place.

The clothing designer said Hilo's understanding of Merrie Monarch has evolved. "In early years, we just thought about it from the economic standpoint, but now we see that it's a wonderful resource, this gathering of teachers."