Main Street reports steady visitation amid construction; fall antique festival to proceed

Clinton Main Street told the City Council on Sept. 9 that downtown visitation has held up better than expected during Market Street construction and that the organization will proceed with its fall antique festival in October.

Catherine (Clinton Main Street) reported a comparison of 2024 versus 2025 cell‑phone data filtered to visits of 30 minutes or longer in the downtown area. "Visits are down about 1.5%, but visitors are up," she said, explaining this suggests fewer repeat visits rather than an overall collapse in visitation. She added a separate analysis showed Friday‑through‑Sunday visitation from May through August rose about 11.3% compared with the prior year.

Main Street leaders attributed some resilience to two new downtown restaurants, expanded social‑media outreach and targeted promotional efforts — including 1.7 million Facebook views so far this year and boosted posts about construction. The organization said it distributed about 10,000 brochures to travel centers, launched a new downtown website listing every business at no cost, and produced photos and posts intended to drive new customers to shops.

Organizers said the fall antique festival will proceed in October and that the event will include printed cards listing downtown businesses to encourage attendees to visit stores not directly on Market Street. Main Street thanked the city for agreeing to allow the festival to continue despite downtown work and said it expects the event to help downtown businesses during a difficult construction period.