May market magic

Antique festival brings energy back to downtown

May 6, 2026 by G. Chambers Williams III

Last weekend’s 21th-annual Clinch River Spring Antique Festival may have signaled a new beginning for downtown Clinton as thousands of people turned out to shop the street vendors and stores.

They seemed eager to take advantage of the improvements to the sidewalks, which have been the focus of more than 15 months of construction.

“I felt like the festival was a huge sign of things to come for downtown,” said Katherine Birkbeck, executive director of Historic Downtown Clinton. “Just like that, Market Street came back to life.

“I think it signals that people are ready to be downtown again.”

She said that usually the spring festival doesn’t draw as many visitors as the fall festival does, but that this year, “The crowds were much bigger than I expected. I was really, really thankful at how many people came.

“We went big, and we had each business in mind when we planned the festival,” she said.

Visitors seemed to be impressed with the festival, which featured more than 100 street vendors, along with special events, including craft demonstrations and artistic performances.

“On Friday, we had a tour bus of 60 who came from Kentucky,” Birkbeck said. “Some said they traveled over 300 miles to come, and they were not disappointed. And they said, ‘We’ll be back in the fall.’”

While she did not yet have an estimate of the crowd numbers, Birkbeck said she believes the turnout was better than the 6,000 to 8,000 who usually turn out for the spring festival, adding that the fall festival generally attracts more.

The brick-and-mortar store merchants, who have had to endure the shutdown of Market Street to traffic since February 2025, reported that they had good crowds in their businesses for the two-day festival, which occurred on Friday and Saturday.

“It was amazing,” Kathie Creasy, owner of Granny’s Attic antiques at 370 Market St., said Monday. “I was very impressed with how well it went. I had lots of customers for both days.

“It was so good to have the vendors on the street,” she said. “That made a huge difference.

“I was very impressed with how well it went,” she said. “It was so well-decorated. We needed it after this last year.”

Charity Helton, owner of Dandelion Market at 362 Market St., echoed Creasey’s remarks.

“I think everything was fine,” she said. “We had a good turnout, and we did well both days.”

Clinton City Manager Roger Houck was also impressed with the results.

“It went great,” he said of the festival. “I think everybody did well. The merchants I talked to said they had a very good weekend.”

While Market Street will remain closed to vehicular traffic until after it’s repaved, Houck said the merchants were glad to have the sidewalks mostly finished.

“We’re working on irrigation, flower beds and plants now,” he said. “The city street clock will be here Friday, and we should have that up within about two weeks.”

The clock will be at the end of Pearl Alley, the newly paved walkway from Commerce to Market streets, which comes out next to Burrville antiques.

“We should begin paving Market Street in the middle of June,” he said. “We’ll also repave Commerce, Cullom, Freddy Fagan, and probably Broad Street.”

Repaving of Main Street through downtown probably won’t come until mid-July, after sewer work there is completed, he said.