Art vendors weren’t the only ones benefiting from large TroyFest crowds last weekend— some local merchants left Sunday with record-breaking sales.

“I think this is probably the best we’ve ever had,” said Bill Thompson, owner of On the Square Antiques.

Thompson, whose business has been open since the days of the Jean Lake Festival, said the event brought more people in this TroyFest than it has before.

“The weather wasn’t too hot, and people seemed to really enjoy it,” Thompson said.

Juliette Adams, owner of the Pink Parlor, said while the event always brings more traffic into her store, this year seemed to bring even more.

“I would say this is one of our better TroyFests,” Adams said. “We had a lot of people coming into the store saying how nice Troy was and how glad they were they went to TroyFest.”

And even merchants who have never been open for TroyFest said this weekend was good for business.

“It wasn’t overwhelming, but it wasn’t nothing either,” said Bert Fridlin, owner of Uptown Galleries. “It was worth being open.”

Jenniffer Barner, president of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce, said she was pleased downtown merchants were able to benefit from the festival, as well.

“As our merchants are working through the challenges of the economy, the news I have gotten so far on how the downtown merchants did this weekend truly made it a ‘Chamber of Commerce weekend’ for us,” Barner said. “That is one of the reasons we work so hard to make events like TroyFest and other area events successful to bring awareness to the county and help our businesses remain strong.”

But the weekend wasn’t just a hit for local merchants, said TroyFest Committee Chairman Stephanie Baker.

“I personally couldn’t have been more happy,” Baker said. “We had beautiful weather, and we really got through the weekend without any major issues at all.”

Baker said downtown merchants and vendors were both pleased with the revenues they received, but they were also just as pleased with the hospitality Troy had to offer.

“The main thing we were complimented on was our hospitality,” Baker said. “It’s not just about the staff but just the people in Troy are so friendly, and they didn’t just share with me but with the staff and the general public.”

Baker said she estimates around 8,000 attended the weekend’s events, which is about the same as last year.

TroyFest judges selected several artists as the top in the show. The following are the winners: Anouk Gunter, best of show; Keith Newby, first place fine arts; Allison Bohoufoush, first place crafts; Barbara Brook, merit painting; Don Prietz, merit pottery; Arlene Parker, merit jewelry; Goerge Elliot, merit photography; Bill Hill, merit graphics and drawing; Russell Everett, merit sculpture; Sharelee Sherman, merit function and traditional crafts; Charles Adams, merit decorating and traditional crafts; Katherine Clark, most creative use of materials; Matt Brabham, demonstrating artist award; Walter Black, freshman exhibiting artist.