Shopping at small businesses in Athens is more important than ever, as the community continues its rapid growth and larger chains continue to swoop in — Athens Main Street has continued to provide numerous opportunities for residents to support local business.

“It’s absolutely vital for us to encourage that foot traffic to our downtown restaurants and merchants,” Tere Richardson, executive director of Athens Main Street, told The News Courier. “We try our best to put on events that will connect with people from all over, people who maybe would never have visited Athens otherwise. We love our locals so much, but we have a duty to attract people from out of our area and get them hooked on all of the great things we have to offer in downtown Athens.”

The charming and vibrant downtown area has been on full display the past few weekends, as Athens Main Street presented the third annual Boutique Crawl and the St. Patrick’s Day-inspired Pub Crawl on Saturday, March 15, and Saturday, March 22. 

“Each year the Boutique Crawl gets bigger and bigger,” Richardson said. “Athens is a great place to shop — and we have recently added more boutiques to the Square, so we get people from Birmingham, Nashville and Atlanta to attend. Coupling that event with the Pub Crawl, which has organically become very popular, showed how much our people love being in downtown Athens.”

As the weather continues to warm back up, Athens Main Street has geared up for the return of the popular Fridays After Five music concert series, held on the steps of the Limestone County Courthouse. This highly anticipated event, which kicks off on April 25, will feature live music, food vendors and activities for all ages to enjoy as they roam around the historic downtown area. 

Another highly anticipated event is the return of the Athens Farmers Market, which is set to reopen on Tuesdays — beginning on May 6 — and Saturdays — beginning on June 7 — as the Spring season gets into full gear. 

“We are so excited to show off all of the upgrades we’ve done with the renovations to the Farmers Market,” Richardson said. “I can’t wait to see the musicians on the new stage, our patrons cooling off under the new tents and all of the new vendors. We already have all of the pavilion space for our vendors sold out for our Saturdays for the year, and we still have inquiries about some of the available space. The Farmers Market has been a staple of this community for a long time now, and we are more than happy to continue its legacy at Doug Gates Park.”

As proud as Richardson is of the remodeled Athens Farmers Market, she is particularly proud of the collaborations Athens Main Street has formed with local organizations — which she noted have been instrumental in fostering the area’s thriving economic ventures. 

By working together with groups like the Athens-Limestone County Chamber of Commerce, the Limestone County Economic Development Association, Athens-Limestone County Tourism, the City of Athens and the Limestone County Commission — Athens Main Street was able to bring in 13 new businesses in 2024.

“It takes a village to accomplish what we have been able to accomplish,” Richardson said. “All of us working together has been able to build an environment that is extremely attractive and welcoming to new businesses. If one of those things breaks down, then none of it works. We are so blessed to be able to live in Athens, because the sky’s the limit with what we can accomplish to make sure our city and county continue to flourish.”