FORT MILL, S.C. — Small businesses and vendors around the area are working to make up ground after the Fort Mill Strawberry Festival was canceled due to bad weather last weekend.
The festival normally features dozens of small businesses and those small business owners rely on festivals like the Strawberry Festival to make money and get their name out there.
A mini-festival was held indoors on Saturday to help some vendors.
But for many vendors, the event is a huge sales boost, and the festival's cancelation left them hurting.
For Shanon Kindred, the small business owner of Toushae Skincare, it's a labor of love. She has to plan ahead and each bar of soap is meticulously crafted and cured.
"I have to leave it alone for four to six weeks until they are ready to go," Kindred said about her method.
But Kindred's bars of carefully crafted soap will have to stay on the shelves a bit longer. Since the event was canceled it left her with a surplus.
"I do have a little bit of extra inventory right now," Kindred said.
She lost hundreds of dollars from investing money in making the goods and renting a space at the festival.
Kindred is not alone. Kelly Murphy, the small business owner of K & M Sweet Treats planned on selling thousands of dollars worth of products at the festival. She worked six days straight and baked for 14 hours a day. Murphy said the festival is her biggest event of the year and as an online store, she relies on it to network and meet other clients.
"If something were to happen, we could sustain ourselves for two months with what we make at that festival," Murphy said.
Dan Reynolds, owner of Dan's Desserts, is also a baker in the area. He did not have a spot at the festival but saw how people were nervous about selling the already prepared items. Reynolds made a Facebook page where anyone could join and he highlighted the vendors.
"We got 1,200 people in two days, the community came out and supported," Reynolds said.
Kindred and Murphy said they've felt the support and couldn't be more thankful.
Contact Austin Walker at awalker@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.