The air was filled with flying motorcycles, raucous music and faithful praise early on during Portland CityFest with world renowned Christian evangelist Luis Palau.

Festival officials marked attendance at about 75,000 people for events that started early with actions sports and a family fun zone and ended with music from Christian music superstars Chris Tomlin and Kutless and a Gospel message from Palau.

CityFest began Friday and continued Saturday from 2 to 10 p.m. The festival was free and open to everyone.

Tuesday, during a noon time lunch to thank organizers and celebrate the coming festival, Palau showed off his wit and sense humor. He verbally nudged Portland’s mayor elect Sam Adams from stage, to create a new name for the area.

Link: Palau.org

“You gotta find a name, by the way, now that you're the new mayor, you gotta invent a name because we gotta get Vancouver and the other towns feeling a part,” said Palau.

“Dallas and Ft. Worth compete allot you know, and they call it the Metroplex,” he said with a grin.

“So I think we gotta have a name. But that is independent of this afternoon,” said Palau. “That's for later on when we solve the virgin birth thing," he said to a roar of laughter from the audience.

Palau then went on to explain his excitement at gathering tens of thousands of people, from all walks of life, to the Portland waterfront.

The festival included extreme sports demonstrations, a family play area, top Christian bands and a serious spiritual message about God’s love.

“We will culminate with celebration -- but also letting people know there is redemption. There is a chance to start over again,” said Palau.

The festival followed a summer long effort called “Season of Service” dreamed up by Palau’s son, Kevin.

 More: Watch Luis Palau speech (won't be available for viewing until Saturday)

The effort pulled together 26,000 volunteers from all walks of life.

Some of their work included sprucing up Portland’s Roosevelt High school, saving the school district an estimated $200,000.

In all, 5100 volunteers cleaned up 62 schools.

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Another effort aimed at giving free medical and dental care to the needy in Southeast Portland.

201 churches and agencies pulled together for the mission, gathering up 1,155 volunteers who helped 1,846 people.

It’s the kind of operation that attracted the city’s political leaders, which is why Mayor Elect Sam Adams took the luncheon stage.

At first glace it might seem like an odd combination,” said Adams.

“Sam Adams, mayor elect of one of the most liberal cities in the United States, sharing the stage with Luis Palau and his team, one of the world’s best known evangelists,” he said.

But Adams went on to explain, “we share a commitment to service and community service,” he said.

A similar motivation drew in Wells Fargo bank.

"One of the things that really was attractive to us in getting involved is the fact that this is a focus on what unites us, what binds us together as a community and not on what divides us," said Alan Johnson, Regional President for Wells Fargo.

Palau’s last Portland festival was in 2000. It drew an estimated 140,000 people over two days.