Spring Water Festival organizers are hoping a forecast for ideal festival weather and some new attractions, along with a homecoming concert by Nashville recording artist Austin Webb, will encourage everyone to come out and enjoy this years event. The family friendly two day festival, celebrating their 34th year, will be held this Friday and Saturday, August 21 and 22 in Williamston’s Mineral Spring Park.
Special and new attractions include free kids games and activities, a specially selected and exotic food selection, unveiling of community art, craft vendors from three states with a variety of items and an all star day of entertainment on three stages and more.
Unveiling
One of the special attractions will be the unveiling of a life-sized sculpture of Williamston founder, West Allen Williams. The sculpture , by local artist and art teacher Thomas Addison is a clay model that will, hopefully, be cast in bronze and placed on permanent display at the memorial. The community art unveiling will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at the West Allen Williams family memorial located in Mineral Spring Park.
Special Food
Fourteen specially selected food vendors will offer a variety of delicious festival food items and specialties with some new offerings. In addition to festival favorites, new this year will be Cuban, Mexican, Vegan and Low Country fare. New and exotic items include Jambalaya, Fried Grits, Fried Green Tomatoes, Cuban fare, Vegan noodles or with Teriyaki Chicken, Gullah Rice, Alligator Bites, Jerk Chicken,Tacos and Breakfast Burritos.
Crafts
The festival will feature approximately 50 craft vendors offering a variety of handmade craft items. One of those is Jhaz Soaps, located in Conway, offering handmade bath and body products.
Named after their daughter Jhazmine, Jeff and J-ann Bieniek started Jhaz Soaps in 2014 as a fun family project and as a solution to sensitive skin. “My wife has sensitive skin. No matter what kind of soap we tried she would break out from them,” said Jeff.
“So we ordered a kit. We liked the idea of knowing all of the ingredients. We compared them to other name brand soap manufacturers and had no clue what they were putting in theirs, nor was able to pronounce any of it. So after a long month of waiting for our soap to cure we finally got to try it out. It was amazing, it cleaned better, left our skin moist, and her skin cleared up. We were so excited that we made a few more batches.”
“I was director of housekeeping at the time, and my wife was working at the front desk of a large resort. We started bringing in samples to everybody. Of course there were a few hesitant because they have sensitive skin. But they took it anyways and next thing you know everybody wanted to buy our soap. Even the ones with sensitive skin. Everyone was so impressed on how moisturized they felt afterwards. One woman said she took all of her lotion at home and threw it out. She said she didn’t need lotion after using our soap,” Bieniek said.
“We were not prepared to sell, we were just having fun. So we said to each other, we can do this. This has always been a dream for both of us, to own our own business. I never thought in a million years it would be making soap though. So after selling to some of or coworkers, we signed up for our first ever event at the Springmaide Resort Annual Crafts Fair.”
“We worked every night making new fun, colorful batches. We had fun selecting new fragrances, and what colors to match. Then My wife came up with some new ideas bringing in bathbombs, and lotion.”
“Our first event was a huge success. We signed up for more events. Its great going to all of the festivals and craft shows. You meet so many new great people. All of the vendors help each other out, by telling each other about other events. There is always some new gadget or neat craft you see along the way. There is always great food. We just have a blast at all of the festivals.”
“We recently opened up a kiosk at Coastal Grand Mall in Myrtle Beach Everyone we meet can not find us in person instead of only being able to find us at festivals or purchase online. We are very excited to be attending this festival as well, and meeting everyone there.”
Jhaz Soaps is just one of the many unique vendors at this year’s festival.
