The SC Pecan Music & Food Festival is back in downtown Florence | Pee Dee news

FLORENCE – Once a year, typical life in downtown Florence comes to a screeching halt.

Puppeteers, marathon runners and musicians replace busy office workers, students and lunch guests. The through traffic disappears and a museum with vintage cars lines the street.

Just nine hours bring 50,000 people – more than the population of Florence – to the city center. Now in its 20th year, the SC Pecan Music & Food Festival is a draw for people, a touchstone for the community and the official South Carolina State Pecan Festival.

But that wasn't always the case.

“It’s really become a celebration of community and food,” said Hannah Davis, downtown development manager. “People call it 'Pecan Day.'” Everyone knows what it is. It’s the one time that Florence comes together in one place and people have community.”

How it started

The concept of the festival was presented to several organizations in the city that could have made it happen, said George Jebaily, chairman of the Pecan Festival Committee. He was chairman of the Downtown Development Corporation when the idea made its way there in the early 2000s.

“We had a feeling what a great game this was going to be,” Jebaily said. “Here is a vehicle that can help us achieve part of our goal, which is to get on the road. We want to bring pedestrian traffic into the city center so that people can see, on the one hand, perhaps the businesses that are there, but also some of the vacant buildings, and on the other hand, see economic opportunities.”

The downtown area was struggling at the time, Jebaily said. Buildings were empty, streets were empty. He wanted to make Florence and the city center a destination – a place his children would return to when they grew up.

Around 2,500 people came to the first festival, said Jebaily. In the second year they managed to close Irby Street – one of the main arteries into Florence – and received 5,000 visitors.