Endless sunlight, warm breezes and five-stages-no-waiting entertainment drew an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people to the annual Yonkers Riverfest yesterday.

Crowds worked their way slowly along streets lined with vendors. Eclectic diversions could be found up one block and down another. There was even a llama in a pen with some baby goats outside the train station.

A five-piece brass band on stilts worked its way up Main Street. Two guys on snowboards performed on a trampoline farther up the block, leaping 20 to 30 feet in the air and providing a convenient view for those who couldn't sit up close.

Closer to the ground, entertainers in striking costumes posed for pictures and drew reactions from small children that ranged from delight to shear terror. The costumes, from Hudson Vagabond Puppets of Blauvelt, included a pair of dragons, some dinosaurs and two trees with foam-rubber foliage and goofy faces in the trunks.

Anthony Kollar, 28, had donned one of the tree costumes and was dancing like a character from Oz.

"You just kind of lose all control and just have a good time. Being an adult, you can't do that all the time," he said.

Other mobile forms of entertainment included local marching drum corps. Two groups competed for attention as they snaked through the streets, pounding out percussion that reverberated among the buildings.

The Nepperhan Youth Corps wore signature white T-shirts and blue jeans. The Yonkers YMCA Marching Wildcats' trademark was red and white Ts and black jeans. Both groups had dancing units that shrugged off the pitiless sun and upper-80s temperatures as they whirled and undulated.

As onlookers circled them to watch, children tried to copy their moves and grownups took pictures with cellphone cameras.

"The audience usually loves us because we're kids, we're young," said Michael Dent, director of the Nepperhan group. Terrel Stowers, who leads the Wildcats, said his group is trying to raise $20,000 to attend a competition in Atlanta in January.

Music of all flavors is key to the festival. One stage on the river featured jazz and blues, while bands in front of the post office blasted rock 'n' roll. A mariachi group serenaded people in front of the Citibank building. Blood, Sweat and Tears was the headline performer.

Steve Sansone, executive director of the Yonkers Downtown/Waterfront Business Improvement District, said the festival is becoming a venue in demand.

"Last year we had to find the acts and performers. This year they found us," he said.