While rough weather threatened the Troy area Saturday, that didn’t stop TroyFest from carrying on.

“The weather actually did not hinder TroyFest too much,” said Jenniffer Barner, TroyFest chair. “Vendors reported good sales on Saturday and of course very good sales on Sunday. Some of the artists said that the Saturday sales were better than Sunday. It is all a matter of preference.”

TroyFest started earlier on Sunday to make up for the time lost due to weather Saturday, giving TroyFest visitors more time to enjoy downtown Troy.

Weather concerns may have been present Saturday morning, but there were also plenty of good times to be found.

Plenty of vendors and artists’ tents were set up, and there was no shortage of TroyFest visitors.

“We liked it a lot,” said Penelope Dawson, a visitor from Dalton, Ga. “We even bought some preserved flowers to give to our business colleagues.”

Dawson’s visit to TroyFest was her first, but she said she hopes to return in future years.

“We certainly hope to come back,” Dawson said. “Troy is a lovely town, and the people have been so hospitable that we will try to be back in the future.”

The hospitality of the City of Troy was evident to many, rather than just Dawson.

Stephen Cappelli, an artist from Deatsville, was also making his first trip to TroyFest and was also pleased with the atmosphere.

“The weather worried me very much, but the people have been very hospitable,” Cappelli said. “It’s been great interacting with everyone and the staff is very helpful.”

Barner said the positive reviews were no surprise to her.

“We have had wonderful feedback from the festival,” Barner said. “There is a reason TroyFest is called the “friendliest show in the south” and the TroyFest committee, all the volunteers and anyone who had anything to do with TroyFest 2010 certainly showed that this weekend. It is so pleasing to know that no matter what conditions we are faced with we can still make it the friendliest show and make it happen. I love Pike County and this weekend reminded me of one of the reasons why. Everyone pulled together and made it work and even people who couldn’t be there have sent messages saying that they were praying that the show went off great.”

This year’s TroyFest also featured the 2nd Alabama International Film Festival, an event that expanded to three days this year, up from last year’s one-day event.

“This is our second year, and the initial idea was just to add something else to the area, and we had some interested folks in the film industry, so we started off with a one-day festival, but since we had so many submissions this year, we had to go to three days,” said John Jinright, Director of Submissions. “We were a bit overwhelmed, to be honest.”

The film festival took place at the Cultural Arts Studio, while right across the street at the Holman and Ethel Johnson Center for the Arts was another special event.

The Johnson Center, formerly the Troy Post Office, was honored with a historical marker on the 100th birthday of the old post office.

“I just want to thank the people in the community for all the hard work they have done in helping to save this building,” said Richard Metzger, Executive Director of the Troy-Pike Cultural Arts Center. “I hope our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren will have the building to enjoy, along with all of the art inside of it.”

Although TroyFest is now at an end, Barner said all the hard work put in paid off.

“I can’t thank the committee members, sponsors, volunteers and our community enough for a great TroyFest weekend and a weekend for homecomings and reunions,” Barner said. “It seems that no one let the threat of bad weather stop them from doing what they had planned and it all worked out. We are blessed and our thoughts and prayers go out to those families who did have bad weather and tragic losses.”