The Fayetteville Slawburger Festival has become the most anticipated event of the year for our town, and the 2024 edition didn't disappoint. The festival is a chance for us to not only celebrate our origination of the slawburger but also our community, traditions, and what makes our community special. Our non-profit organization, Fayetteville Main Street, uses the proceeds for downtown revitalization and small business support.
We were thrilled to host over 10,000 people from all over the Southeast, including Nashville, Winchester, Chattanooga, and Huntsville, and we even had guests from London, England, join us! The festival's welcoming atmosphere and focus on diversity and inclusion is essential, especially praised by those visiting from larger cities who enjoyed the ease of our walkable, friendly small town.
The food is often the main attraction, but we wanted to create a more complete experience and highlight our sponsors in a significant way to show what our local businesses have to offer. This was the second year for us to use Magnolia Displays, and we saw a significant increase in sponsorship. Sponsorships were up almost 30% from the previous year due to the increased recognition they get with Magnolia's LED display. With a festival of this size, we’re talking about thousands of dollars that we can reinvest back into downtown revitalization and sustainability.
From the highly anticipated eating competitions to performances by local bands like Shelby Lee Lowe and American Idol finalist Clay Paige, we were able to use the display not just for the promotion of sponsors but also for more crowd interaction. We scrolled the daily schedule and also used the display for the countdown clock for the eating competition.
Working with Magnolia has been a fantastic experience. Organizing a large festival involves many moving parts, but they streamlined the process from start to finish, ensuring our slideshow was perfect. Their excellent communication and professionalism have earned our trust, and we look forward to partnering with them year after year.
Aimee Byrd - Executive Director - Fayetteville Main Street