The Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival has been a staple in DeKalb County for over 50 years, drawing in thousands of visitors from around the country and the world to the small town of Smithville every summer. The celebration of old-time music is known nationwide and has always been a boost to the local economy, but some local businesses say the way the Jamboree places vendors is hampering their store sales.

At the regular meeting of the Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen, on Monday, June 3, several business owners along West Walnut Street voiced their concerns over how craft booths, that line both sides of the street in front of their shops, allegedly hamper customers from accessing their storefronts.

According to the business owners, the group met with Jamboree officials but failed to reach a solution to the perceived problem. As a result, the business owners said they had no choice but to ask the city for help. During the meeting, they presented a petition signed by themselves, and fellow downtown business owners, asking city officials to help.

Each year, area streets on and around the Courthouse Square are blocked off to allow for vendor tents to set up to sell food items and crafts during the festival. Depending on the year’s involvement, vendors may be lined on each side of a street or in a single row.

In the past, businesses dwindled around the square and downtown streets, but in recent years the downtown area has seen renovation with many new shops and restaurants popping up.

Jamboree President Kim Luton also addressed the meeting explaining that vendors pay a fee to the Jamboree which goes toward the event’s operation cost. “We also promote the City of Smithville and downtown. We want the businesses to succeed and capitalize on the two-day event as much as they possibly can. At our last board meeting, we invited the downtown businesses to come and discuss their concerns. Chief (Fire) Charlie Parker and Chief (Police) Mark Collins joined us and offered suggestions for opening up 3rd Street in order to increase our booths and offer a place to move some booths as needed.”

This year it is not possible because of electrical boards that would need to be in place. The costs are more than our budget can handle this year (at $2,000 - $3,000). However, this is something we can begin to look at for next year,” Lutton explained.

“Our policy states that we will place a booth in front of businesses last. If we see we are going to be full, we offer the booth space to businesses before we place them and ask that they pay the craft booth fee of $135 for that space. If so, we place the craft booth on the waiting list in case something becomes open. We see this as a goodwill gesture from the businesses to support the Jamboree,” said Luton.

The owner of the Arts Garage, Rick Walker, told the Smithville Board that vendors should not be allowed to block access to their store fronts, and that businesses should not have to pay a fee to ensure space in front of their stores is unoccupied.

“We don’t want vendors blocking access to our business fronts”, explained Walker. “We have been forced to pay a $135 vendor fee to have a 10’ x 10’ spot open in front of our businesses. I would like to point out that this is not required of the businesses on Main Street because they don’t have vendors on that side,” he said.

“Randy Caldwell of the Purple Door Antiques and Unique’s and I attempted to make a resolution of this. We met with the president of the Jamboree committee on August 22, 2023. We expressed our concerns and provided some suggestions and potential solutions in writing. We were able to meet with the Jamboree committee on May 9, 2024, where we expressed our concerns again. We offered some solutions and both the fire chief and chief of police offered some solutions as well. We were sent a letter on May 20 from the Jamboree committee saying basically the solution is if there are not enough vendors you can have the space in front of your building, but if there are too many vendors you will have to pay to have that space open,” said Walker.

“My request is that the city council intervene with the Jamboree committee on behalf of the businesses and business owners of downtown Smithville to help us come to a resolution and stop this unfair practice of charging us to have the space in front of our businesses. I want to be clear we support the Jamboree 100 percent. I have gone to the Jamboree every year since I have lived here, and I have products that I have bought from vendors that I use on a weekly basis, but we can’t have that at the cost of our success.”

“We bring tax revenue into the city every day. We have created and revitalized downtown in the last couple of years so much so that social media influencers and the Discovery Channel influencers have come to downtown Smithville to film it and advertise it to the world. The state tourism board is investing in Smithville and DeKalb County because of the things that are going on here. So, we ask that you help us intervene with this to have a resolution that is both beneficial, successful, and as fair as possible for both the Jamboree and for the businesses downtown,” said Walker.

As for the Jamboree Board, Lutton said they have taken steps to make sure there is access to businesses this year. “We have hired an additional constable to patrol the streets and sidewalks. Vendors should not be putting their containers or anything on the sidewalks. We understand that was an issue last year and we will make sure the sidewalks are clear at all times”.

“As far as Main Street is concerned, it is the fire lane Chief Parker has designated. Booths are not straight down the middle of the street. Each year, we rotate moving them further to the right or the left so that there is enough room for emergency services if needed. This is the only reason there are booths on one side of Main Street,” said Luton.

In the end, the Smithville Board took no action on the matter, with Mayor Josh Miller pointing out that the application deadline for vendors has already passes this year. “I was told … that only two booths would be on Walnut Street this year. The cut-off date was June 1. I don’t know if that has changed, but there is apparently not going to be an issue this year. But whatever you do (aldermen) we have to be fair. We cannot do one for Walnut Street and not do it for Market Street or all streets. Everybody has to be on a level playing field,” said Mayor Miller

Alderman Danny Washer made a motion to table the request until a workshop could be scheduled to discuss it further, but the motion died for the lack of a second. Alderman Beth Chandler said the issue should be revisited before the Jamboree next year.