Our Mission
While preserving history and tradition, the SC Pecan Music & Food Festival strives to stimulate the local economy, entertain, and involve the community and visitors in a fun-filled atmosphere.
Our Story
In 2003, the first SC Pecan Festival was created to bring our local community together in burgeoning Downtown Florence for fellowship, family fun, and to celebrate one of South Carolina's favorite nuts, the pecan. The festival grew by leaps and bounds over the next several years, and has since taken its place in Florence history as a time-honored and much anticipated annual fall event held on the first Saturday in November each year.
In 2011, the SC Pecan Festival was designated as the Official South Carolina State Pecan Festival by Act No. 9 of 2011. Since then, the festival has been the recipient of numerous awards including several Best of the Pee Dee Awards for Excellence as the Best Community Festival in both 2014, 2019, and 2022. In 2017, Travel + Leisure Online named the Pecan Festival as the “Best Fall Festival in South Carolina.”
Admission to the festival has always been and will always be free. The SC Pecan Music and Food Festival is a one-day outdoor festival featuring big name entertainment across eight (9) stages, free kids and family activities, over 250 vendors spread across seven (7) blocks in Downtown Florence, amusement rides, pub for the grown-ups, culinary competitions, artist displays and activities, classic car show, Run Like a Nut 5K, 10K, and USATF-certified half marathon races, and Bike Like a Nut half century and century bike rides.
Historic Downtown Florence offers an ideal setting for this multi-block festival. Streets are lined with food and craft vendors, stages on each block pulse with a diverse array of music and entertainment, and kids can enjoy a full day of activities in a space all their own on our FMU Performing Arts Center lawn.
As the festival has grown and evolved over time, the Pecan Festival Committee chose to use the time off due to COVID-19 to take a hard look at the festival, its name, and its mission, and have since rebranded the festival to better reflect the future of Florence's favorite event. We invite you to GO NUTS at the brand-new SC Pecan Music and Food Festival on the first Saturday in November. Our committee promises plenty of food, fun, and outstanding entertainment packed into one beautiful fall day in Downtown Florence.
