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Issue 1

September 27th, 2019

     Pirate Fest is a local community event that is held every year in Downtown Greenville. This event serves as a way to get the community together for fun, food and represents what people love along the East Coast. 

     The preparation for Pirate Fest has taken months in advance in order to get everyone in the right place. Event coordinator Troy Dreyfus, who partners with Downtown Greenville, has been planning this event and contacting all the vendors and business owners. 

     “You’ve got to work with sponsors; you have to do the marketing,” Dreyfus said. “The media and I’ve been doing a ton of interviews as it gets closer.”

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     Pirate Radio owner Jonathan Ellerbe is one of the sponsors for this event. He has been involved with Pirate Fest for years and likes getting to contribute to the fun day.

     Ellerbe believes this event includes something to do for everyone, from blow-up slides, to music, to beverages. The goal of Pirate Fest is to get everyone to come out and have fun, and by giving everyone something to do, they are able to achieve this. 

     “There's something fun to do, whether you're two years old or 100 years old,” Dreyfus said. “You can come out and the music is always good, and the food is always good, and the best part is it's always free.” 

     Pirate Fest serves as a marketing opportunity for local businesses. It brings people from all over to downtown and allows them to explore the community and the things it offers. 

     “We are bringing thousands of people to Downtown Greenville and the Town Commons who may not have come down there in a while,” Dreyfus said. “[This gives] them a chance to see what's new in downtown [and is] a great marketing opportunity.”

     This year, Pirate Fest took place on April 5, and the turnout was larger than Dreyfus had expected. He thinks this was due to the better preparation compared to last year. 

     “[The] turnout was phenomenal,” Dreyfus said. “I think it exceeded our expectations, the Greenville Police Department estimated around 25,000 folks [attended].”

     Pirate Fest brought lots of the community together, and because the weather was good and the event played out well, it made for a great day. The goal of this event was to have something for everyone, and Dreyfus thinks they met their goal. 

     “It ended up being a great cross-community event,” Dreyfus said. “You saw every walk of life there and every type of person showed up, [and that] was the goal of our festival to try and appeal to everybody.”

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