Blairsville, Ga – Sunny skies and great crowds welcomed at the 2019 Green Bean Festival in Blairsville, Ga.

This year’s festival returned to the square. Vendors, tourists, and Union county residents filled the area for two days of shopping and comradery to celebrate summer.

Held by the Farmer’s Market and Downtown Development Authority, the Green Bean Festival attracted over 20 vendors to sell their wares – arts and crafts. Local businesses even changed their menu to include green bean themed dishes like Green Bean Pizza at Papa’s Pizza.

Taking place on July 27-28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the festival saw consistent foot traffic with the square-packed all day Saturday and Sunday.

A kids’ area featured life-sized Connect Four, corn-hole, and horseshoes to keep the little ones entertained while mom and dad shopped.

The small-town atmosphere was contagious with vendors laughing among each other and even sharing Square pay-units to help make transactions.

“We’re using her phone for payments,” laughed a crafts vendor, “I took it right out of her hands, and she was using it.”

Several food vendors were on hand also to serve lunch or a snack to hungry festival-goers, or they could easily walk to establishments like Hole in the Wall or Michaelee’s for a nice sit-down meal.

After the sun went down on Saturday night, Betty and Friends took the stage to entertain their audience with some southern rock and country hits. Set up in front of Hole in the Wall, a few members of the crowd even started dancing in the rocking atmosphere.

Sunday saw a slight damper on festivities with scattered storms in the area, but still a great weekend for commerce in Union County.

Last year, officials decided to move the arts and crafts portion back to the square and let the Farmer’s Market take care of the agricultural aspect. The festival began on the square over at Season’s Inn with Colleen Uraniuk but moved when a streetscape project was instituted.

Nathan Meunier, who runs The Art Department Studio, designed the festival’s mascot, a green bean man. The mascot was a huge hit with the crowds, parents and children alike.