FESTIVE FUN: Locals enjoy arts, crafts festival over weekend
Published 4:00 am Tuesday, April 28, 2015
![Locals gathered in The Square in Downtown Troy for TroyFest on Saturday and Sunday. Although the festivities were cut short on Saturday, TroyFest still drew a good crowd and even more people came on Sunday.](https://www.troymessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/04/0428troyfest3web-300x150.jpg)
Locals gathered in The Square in Downtown Troy for TroyFest on Saturday and Sunday. Although the festivities were cut short on Saturday, TroyFest still drew a good crowd and even more people came on Sunday.
Despite rain on Saturday, Morgan Drinkard, TroyFest publicity chair, said TroyFest was a success.
Saturday started out gloomy and muggy, and by 3 p.m. a storm front had rolled in bringing rain, lightning, wind and even hail.
Saturday’s events were called short due to the weather, but Drinkard said the festival was still able to see a good crowd of people and everyone was able to get home safely.
“We had some inclement weather on Saturday afternoon, but it really came late enough in the day for us to get every one home and safe and end the festival,” Drinkard said. “We had a strong lunchtime crowd, and we were able to get everyone ready for Sunday’s crowd. We think everyone was able to get home safely and get out of standing in the bad weather, so that was good.”
Sunday brought sunshine drying up all the rain, and Drinkard said there had been mass amounts of people taking part in all the festival brought to town.
“We felt like we had a really good turnout this year,” Drinkard said. “I don’t know if it’s because the crowds were more condensed Saturday because of the weather, but we had just a great crowd of people from 10-2. We had a lot of people there to see the entertainment acts. It was overall just a really good crowd both days.”
Drinkard stressed that TroyFest was put on to be more of an art show than anything else, and invited artists jump at the chance to participate.
“Overall the artists said they had a really good show,” Drinkard said. “Many of our artists love coming to the Troy Community, and they comment on how friendly we are and they love making relationships with the people here. We can’t wait until next year.”
And, not only did TroyFest report a lot of traffic, Drinkard said many of the downtown business had reported a boost in their sales.
“Our downtown stores hosted a lot of TroyFest deals, and they felt like that went over really well,” Drinkard said. “They saw an icrease in sales and traffic during the weekend’s events.”
Drinkard said the TroyFest committee had already set next year’s date despite the last weekend of April half falling in May.
“The last Saturday and Sunday of April 2016 will be an odd year, because the last Saturday of the year is April 30 but the last Sunday is May 1, so it will be April 23 and April 24,” Drinkard said. “We want a repeat of these artists. We want the same incredible experience we were able to provide this year. We love our entertainment and our vendors. It is an art festival. That’s the most important thing, the main thing.”