Summer on Broadway offers community, opportunities for small businesses

Hundreds of people braved the heat Friday and Saturday to attend Summer on Broadway. The annual festival boasted music, entertainment and fun for all ages.

Starting Friday afternoon and continuing through Saturday, guests downtown met an array of attractions on Maryville’s Broadway Avenue. The festivities ranged as far as the Greenbelt Amphitheatre and the Blount County Courthouse.

Vendors and booths from the Maryville Farmer’s Market gathered Saturday morning. The Smoky Mountain Dock Dogs and live music ran on and off both days. At the corner of Broadway and Cusick, festival-goers gathered to watch artists painting a mural.

In the evening, Hops in the Hills rounded out the grand finale on the Greenway.

Summer on Broadway has been an annual event in Maryville for years, but that doesn’t make it any less significant for the people participating. For some, like Barbara and Mark Curtis with Sophisticated Country Design, festivals like this provide the bulk of their sales, both directly and afterward. The couple have been selling handmade decor for three years, and this is their fourth time attending Summer on Broadway.

“A lot of our items are custom,” said Barbara Friday evening. “A lot of people from these events will want something custom down the road and we’ll get orders off of the event.”

Attendees at festivals offer the Curtis family a blend of sales opportunities and advertising, meaning the event continues to put money into the community, even after all the vendors have packed up shop. The business sees plenty of repeat customers, and the couple has even formed friendships with people they met in their booth.

For other vendors, like Jennifer Alexander, Summer on Broadway was an opportunity to make local connections and grow her small business. She’s back to making pottery for a living after taking a break, and this was her first year attending the summer event.

“It’s about the local connections and being able to get out into local communities,” she said. “It’s really important that we support our small businesses and our local makers because they’ve got the same bills as the rest of us.”

As the temperatures soared into the 90s Saturday, Larry Hopson said that community sets Maryville apart. He’s been working on cars all his life, and couldn’t miss the opportunity to join the car show that morning.

As area car owners pulled their prized vehicles into line on Court Circle, he said events like Summer on Broadway offer the community a chance to come together and demonstrate the local life.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel,” he said, “But I’m always glad to come home, and I think anyone that moves here knows that feeling.”