Annual music festival boosts business in Floyd

Floyd loves FloydFest.

The four-day music festival, in its 12th year, starts today on an 80-acre site about 12 miles south of Floyd. It will feature dozens of acts — from The Lumineers and Gogol Bordello to local bands and DJs. The sold-out festival will welcome between 12,500 and 15,500 people this year, and many of them will spend time in the neighboring town.

“We’re very appreciative of the festival. It gives growth for the economy for the whole town,” said Julie Arrington, who, with her husband Kerry Underwood, owns Oddfella’s Cantina on North Locust Street.

Hotel Floyd manager Derek Wall said that the 16-room hotel books a year in advance for the week of the festival. Wall said his father, Jack Wall, purchased the land in 2002 and built the hotel, with sidewalks and room for expansion. The younger Wall said his father knew Floyd County was growing, and he didn’t want to see a chain hotel in the spot.

The hotel is hidden away in a quieter part of the one-stoplight town, on a lawn at Wilson Street Southeast. Wall said the rates range from $110 a night for rooms with a kitchenette to about $170 for the suites with full kitchens. Business is doing so well, he said, that he plans to expand to 40 rooms by next summer.

In fact, he said the hotel usually does better during the time before and after Floydfest. “Some people come in the Monday before to get settled and to go around the town,” Wall said.

That means they’re spending money, eating and shopping in the area longer than just the festival’s four days.

“FloydFest is good for just about everyone here,” said Jim Newlin, a manager of the store Republic of Floyd . “People sometimes come just to get a little break when they visit here. But the businesses prepare for it.”

Despite the influx of people, the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce doesn’t keep tabs on FloydFest’s financial impact on the county.

Republic of Floyd, located on South Locust Street, sells novelty items such as T-shirts and stickers and beer, wine and food — there’s a whole shelf dedicated to sauces. Newlin said that a group of people from the town purchased the store when its founder, Tom Ryan, died in January.

“It left a hole in the town, so Mayor Will Griffin convinced people to buy the store,” Newlin said. He added there will be a Republic of Floyd booth at FloydFest.

Next to Oddfella’s, William and Joanne Bell own Bell Gallery and Garden . Their shop sells nature-inspired art and crafts and William Bell’s photography. They’ve been doing art shows since the early 1980s and opened the store on North Locust Street in 2006. Joanne Bell said people tend to buy small things in her store first and then come back later to buy larger things.

“We love FloydFest,” she said.

Keeping the local flavor vibrant, no matter how many visitors flood the region, is important to Floyd business owners — especially the younger ones, like Arrington and Wall.

“The progressives are the ones who are business owners and think differently,” Wall said.

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