ST CHARLES, Mo. — At the St. Charles Festival of the Little Hills, you'll find loyal vendors George and Kim Wolfford's "Groovyware Tie Dye" booth.
"The crowd is wonderful. We've had people who've been coming to see us for years. We've had kids growing up in our shirts," Kim Woolford said.
They've been coming to the festival since 2003 and set up shop next to their Floridian friend, Richard Badame, who makes outdoor furniture.
"We do about 40 shows a year, in 30 years this is probably the nicest group of people that we have that we deal with," Richard Badame said.
This year, the Board accepted about 250 vendors out of 300 applications, and they reviewed each one, making sure every product inside this festival was homemade.
People couldn't celebrate in person last year, but Board Member Zach Jacob says the turnout was about the same as their last event in 2019.
"Obviously we're following CDC guidelines, of course, but I think people are really excited to finally get out, go to some show like this and the comradery is great," Jacob said.
"We've been going on the bouncy house and we painted," Noah Cervone said.
"We like being outside and we love the arts and the crafts and the games for the kids. Nice family event," Aaron Toyoders said.
Lee and Missy Barton with Missy's Country Woodcrafts and Tye Gardner with Gardner's Wisconsin Cheese and Sausage were happy to be back for the festival's 50th year.
"Missed the one-on-one," Missy Barton said. "The friendships we made over the years. The repeat people coming in and some people just coming in and visiting not necessarily adding to their collection, but just visiting."
"The 50th landed kind of hopefully on the backside of this pandemic because it's just kind of added a little bit more excitement to the whole show," Gardner said.
"They had a blast I wish we could do this more often, so it was great," Robyn Cervone said.
"Yeah, I wish we could do this every day!" Noah Cervone said.
The board is already planning for next year's festival.
They've set the dates for Aug. 19, 20 and 21, of 2022.