The 43rd Annual Spring Water Festival will be held this weekend, August 23-24, in Williamston’s historic Mineral Spring Park.
This year’s festival is being sponsored by Cristina Ortiz State Farm Agency and Community Bank/Dogwood State Bank.
The festival will kick off at 6 pm on Friday evening with live music by two local bands, the Blue Sky Blues Band and The Fortunate Sons. Music lovers are invited to bring a lawn chair or blanket and enjoy an evening of music. Twelve different food vendors will offer a variety of delicious festival food items and specialties.
The 5k Spring Water Run will be held at 7:30 am on Saturday. There will be some temporary street closures during the race.
Other planned road closures for the festival include:
Friday from 5 pm -11 pm – East Main Street and West Main Street will be shut down from Pelzer Ave to Minor St.. Detour is around Town Hall. Parking is available in the old Town Square Center parking lot.
On Saturday from 7 am – 5 pm – East Main Street and West Main Street will be shut down from Mill St. to Gossett Dr. on West Main St. From 4 pm -10 pm, Main St. will be shut down from Pelzer Ave to Minor Street. Detour will be around town hall.
Festival day activities on Saturday will begin at 9 am and include antique and classic auto show, informative business and non-profit displays, children’s activities.
More than 50 craft vendors, boutiques and local vendors will display and sell their items. Many offer handmade specialty items.
Approximately 50 business and non-profit organizations are expected to have informative displays about the goods and services they offer.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a 501c3 organization that raises money to fund Childhood Cancer research, will have a head-shaving event during the festival.
They will have t-shirts and wristbands available for a donation.
Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess and members of Town Council will be dipping and serving spring water at the historic Mineral Spring from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m.
The Williamston Fire Department antique and classic auto show will have more than 100 antique autos, street rods, customs, trucks, jeeps and other special vehicles on display. The car show is sponsored by Clinkscales Chevrolet in Belton, Kenneth Rhodes & Associates Insurance/Managing Partner Lauren Marvin and the Williamston Fire Department.
This year there will be a $500 Cash Give-a-Way to registered entries, $100 each hour. Registration will be $20 with awards to the top 25, plus six specialty awards.
Persons interested in displaying a customized vehicle, antique car or truck or tractor in the show can register between 8 am and noon on festival day.
The fire department will also offer $1 rides on the restored 1936 Chevrolet fire engine.
Registration for the 5k Spring Water Run will be available until race day. Entry Fee is $25 and includes a race bib and timing chip. Spring Water Race shirts can be added to any registration for $12 each.
The race will be timed and the overall top three male and female winners will receive cash and gift card prizes.
Packet Pickup and registration begins at 6:30 am on race day in the parking lot beside McDonald’s in downtown Williamston.
Registration information is available online at www.springwaterfestival.com or email: Kellylanemoon@gmail.com
The Spring Water Festival celebrates the founding of a town that was once a popular tourist destination, with the state’s largest hotel and drawing people from across the state to enjoy the benefits of a mineral spring which reportedly had medicinal qualities.
Today the spring around which the town was built still flows, offering visitors a cool, refreshing drink of spring water in Mineral Spring Park, one of the oldest public parks in the country.
The festival is organized by the Williamston Springwater Festival Committee, a 501 C3 non profit organization. Proceeds from the festival are used for improvements in the park and to help decorate the Christmas Park.
