Lured by the aromas of food from around world, thousands of people converged on Civic, although shelter was highly sought when storms rolled through Canberra briefly.

More than five millimetres fell in Canberra on Saturday throughout the day, but the rain cleared just in time for the dinner-time rush.

In good news for visitors, the final of day of the festival on Sunday saw no showers at all.

An estimated 280,000 visited the three-day event, which is celebrating its 21^st year this year.

While international food was a major drawcard, it wasn't all that was on offer for punters.

Dance displays also proved to be one of the highlights, with the Canberra School of Bollywood Dancing drawing a large crowd just before the rain hit.

Krissa Jilson was one of 35 performers as part of the dance group, putting on a 30-minute performance ranging from Bollywood rumba, hip-hop and fusion dancing.

While the group opened up the Multicultural Festival on Friday, Mrs Jilson said a much larger crowd were involved with their performance on Saturday.

"There was a lot of families and business people on Friday, but [Saturday's] crowd was easily double that," she said.

"We did a workshop as well, and the beauty of Bollywood music is that it's a good workout."

Diversity was on show: Patrons ate Indian and Thai food, drank Scottish and German beer, while performers sang La Bamba on stage. 

Jatin Khanna, eating lunch with his family, noticed Turkish belly dancers were performing to a Punjab folk song from his former country India, and had to tell his friends there. 

"My friends back in Punjab know about it now. This is exceptional."

His brother Niraj's mother-in-law, Nita Kapoor, extended her Australian stay for the festival. Canberra was a change from Mumbai, from where he moved about seven years ago, he said. 

"It's a good difference here from the hustle and bustle of a city like Mumbai."