With Spring finally in town, and Summer on its way, event season in Fountain Inn is getting started this month with our annual Mac Arnold Cornbread & Collard Greens Blues Festival.

This month I wanted to highlight why our events, which run from April through December for the most part, are so important to Fountain Inn.

1. Celebrating Community

What better excuse to meet new people, catch up with friends, and fully experience the community you live in than at a festival!

In this modern age, we order nearly anything to our door, we comment online instead of knocking on the door or picking up the phone, and we get trapped in the new series on Netflix - all instead of spending time together, getting to know our neighbors, and creating bonds with our community. Our events help break that cycle and get folks back together again.

Our events help encourage folks to get out of their house, out of their regular bubble, and meet their neighbors, reconnect with friends, and enjoy the fellowship that comes with getting our community together. It’s these connections that help form the tight knit community we all love in Fountain Inn.

Events help make sure we are continuing to build relationships in our community, build traditions, and enjoy time with our loved ones. Take our Sounds of Summer concert series for instance. Every Friday from late May-August, you can head down to our Commerce Park Stage, set up a lawn chair, and spend a couple of hours unwinding from the week with anywhere from 500-1,500 neighbors - every week. It’s a great opportunity to not only meet new folks, but also meet up with friends and family regularly throughout the season.

Or take our banner events such as Aunt Het and our Christmas festival. Events like those are steeped in tradition and are so much a part of Fountain Inn, they help define it.

Events help us celebrate our community, not just the physical location of Fountain Inn, but what makes our town great - it’s people.

2. Economic Impact

Over the course of an entire year, our downtown sees over 1 million total visits (including repeat visitors). Every time we close Main Street for a major event, we average 7,000-8,000 people in attendance. Those are real numbers from the data tools we use to track the impact of our events and downtown tourism. And those numbers have a real impact on our local economy.

Our businesses - Main Street and beyond - can see their foot traffic and sales increase with each of our events. These events are part of the annual modeling for our area small business owners and are important to keep their business thriving.

Events also help expose visitors to all that our town has to offer and to entice them to return and become regular customers. While attending a festival, they may pop into a store they haven’t visited yet and find their new favorite shop to pick up gifts for their family. Or they may try a new dish that puts Fountain Inn on their list of favorite places to eat.

So, if you haven’t made it to one of our festivals yet, or you’re looking to connect with other families and make some new friends - I encourage you to join us this event season. We can’t wait to see you.

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