Written by Elliott Coombs and Makayla Malotte // Graphic by Ben Evans
Main Street Searcy hosted Sunday on the Square April 7, a street festival to hype up the eclipse. Many downtown businesses were promoted to attendants, and vendors from in and out of Searcy had booths to promote their products.
One of these booths was Searcy business Topshelf Productions, operated by Kyle Payne and Alec Bruer, who sold paintings. Their table featured live paintings made with spray paint. Payne said he thought Sunday on the Square was a great way to bring people together in Searcy.
“I think it’s great,” Payne said. “I think Searcy’s always been really good about community and bringing the community together.”
Payne said he was grateful to have a booth available on the square during the weekend of the solar eclipse.
“I’m pretty excited,” Payne said. “I have a booth, and it’s going to bring a lot of people here, and I’m kind of excited for the town of Searcy in general.”
Bruer, who was working alongside Payne, said the city means a lot to their business.
“We plan on making the most out of today,” Bruer said. “We always love Searcy — we always get a good outcome from it.”
Another booth featured traditional blacksmithing from Casey Arms with a full welding forge. Based out of Romance, Arkansas, Casey Arms works with leather and metal to create swords, knives and many other items. The booth could be recognized by the Scottish and Irish flags celebrating the ancestry of traditional bladesmith Daniel Casey.
“We’ve had a lot of people come through,” Casey said. “We’ve given out a lot of business cards and made a couple sales, and that’s what it’s all about, getting your face out there.”
Casey said he was excited to meet more local people, and do more demonstrations in the area.
“It started out a little slow this morning, and the wind’s giving us some trouble, but from what I hear, there’s a lot of people that have come into town already, so I’m excited,” Casey said.
In addition to vendors, the festival included live stage music, face painting, a petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy houses and fire breathing performances.
Searcy police officers and firefighters were at the festival to help keep the roads clear and keep people safe.
“We’re stationed here all day just in case anybody needs any first aid, or if anything happens, we’re here to make sure everything’s okay,” firefighter John Gernenz said. “I love being out with the public and talking because we really appreciate them. In this city everybody’s so good to us.”
