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For 24 years, Apex has drawn families
from all over to its downtown area for the Peak Festival — families looking to sneak
a peak at the good life so many experience in this growing Western Wake town. Peak Fest,
formerly called Peak Week, is a daylong festival in May full of
vendors, artists and merchants offering good food, good music, good
crafts and good family fun.
About 10,000 people attend each year — high
marks for a small-town festival held downtown. But why downtown?
It’s the lifeblood of the community, said Sheryl Bynum, executive
director of the Apex Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s the nicest type of downtown in Wake
County,” she said.
And the merchants want the festival too,
saying it brings people to the area that might not have been to
downtown Apex.
“We couldn’t offer anything better to give
them more exposure,” Bynum said.
However, events like the Peak Fest aren’t
simple to orchestrate. They require a lot of planning and teamwork.
“It’s a huge undertaking, and it’s all done by
volunteers. It couldn’t happen without them,” Bynum said.
Since 1999, the Apex Festival Commission has
sponsored Peak Fest and the Today and YesterYear Festival, held in
the fall, to generate business in the downtown area and to provide
cultural opportunities for the residents of Apex, said Cat Kearns,
president of the commission. The Town of Apex, Apex Chamber of
Commerce, BB&T and the Downtown Merchants Association also sponsor
both events.
Members of the commission meet all year to
plan the events with a budget of about $30,000-$50,000, depending on
the entertainment and sponsorships, Kearns said.
The town also handles logistics like rerouting
traffic around downtown and trash pick up.
Part of the
festival’s success lies in its longstanding heritage. Yet, each year
the town is challenged to keep that small-town feel to the festival
while Apex continues to grow by leaps and bounds.
Adapting to
Growth
Bynum said plans are in the works to
revitalize some downtown areas, including adding living spaces for
the first time and additional parking places. Currently, every
retail space except one, which is under contract, is filled, she
added.
There has also been a high demand for living
space downtown. Bynum said Apex is in the early stages of converting
the area above one downtown retail space into downtown’s first
inhabitable apartments.
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“This may be the start of a trend,” Bynum
speculated.
Parking is also at a premium. Plans are being
drafted to add about 38 parking spots a block behind downtown on N.
Salem Street and along the railroad tracks, she added. In the
not-too-distant future, Bynum said parking problems will be
alleviated at the chamber offices with realigned spaces.
Apex is also in the process of receiving a
grant from Wake County to put toward converting the parks and
recreation building into a cultural arts facility. The project is
scheduled tentatively for 2006.
Upstairs would house a stage area for live
performances or movies with 200 seats. Downstairs would include
galleries, meeting rooms and a kitchen. A new parks and recreation
facility would be housed in Town Hall, Bynum said.
In an effort to draw more visitors to the area
during the summer months, she added that downtown merchants will
keep their doors open longer. The First Friday of every month this
summer, participating businesses will stay open until 9 p.m. and
offer live music weather permitting, Bynum said.
Typically, the downtown merchants close
between 5-6 p.m. but realize there are advantages to drawing night
dwellers to the historic business district.
“Our biggest assets are the shops in the area,
and it feels good to be there with a unique selection
of stores you can’t find in the mall,” Bynum
said.
Cutting Edge
In an effort to remain competitive, the Apex
Downtown Business Association, Town of Apex and Apex Chamber of
Commerce are converting downtown’s business district into a wireless
Internet zone. The wi-fi technology would allow the public to
access the Internet for free and without connecting to a phone line
or cable.
“We are grateful to the Town of Apex for their
efforts to bring this service to the historic business district, and
are excited about the prospect of being the only wireless downtown
in the area,” said Andrew Liput, president of the Downtown
Merchant’s Association.
The wi-fi idea was proposed by Apex
Commissioner Bryan Gossage to the town staff in April. The town
agreed to pay for the antenna, and the merchant’s association will
pay monthly access fees to allow the public to connect for free.
The downtown area should be wi-fi friendly by July 4.
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