‘We’re super excited’: City of Perry wins excellence award

PERRY, Ga. – The city of Perry gains more praise for downtown after winning the Excellence award at the Georgia Downtown Conference Awards Ceremony.

The city won the award under the promotion category due to its success of the Downtown Perry Wine Tasting event that took place back in April. According to Downtown Manager Alicia Hartley, the city was one of many downtowns in the state to receive an award at the conference.

Hartley said she is very excited to bring this award back to the community and to bring more people to the downtown area.

“We’re super excited to bring this award back to our community and just continue to tell our story of the Downtown Perry Wine Tasting, and bring some more accreditation to our event that we’ve been doing for many years at this point, and hopefully get more people excited to continue to support this event,” said Hartley.

According to Hartley, the annual event, hosted by the Main Street Advisory Board, aims to fundraise for their organization and promote downtown to visitors. Back in April, the event raised up to $21,000, which all went towards a similar project called Drink and Dine Downtown which helps retail growth during the slow season.

The wine tasting has also helped the city’s downtown in other ways. All the proceeds of the event also go towards the beautification of the area and transformative projects, such as an ADA-accessible alleyway and other funded activities such as downtown decoration, the annual Sweet & Treats event, Small Business Saturday and December’s small business support activities.

Due to the popularity of the event, it will now occur twice a year. This will help downtown’s visibility and help fund more main street projects.

Hartley is very grateful for the community, who helped them achieve this award.

“We appreciate everyone’s support over the many years of the Downtown Perry Wine Tasting and we hope that the community continues to support the Main Street Advisory Board through this event,” said Hartley.

The board is currently looking for speakers for an upcoming project the advisory board is planning. According to Hartley, the speakers will go on a lamp post downtown and will do ambient music all year round to add another layer to downtown and enhance visitor and local experience.

The next Downtown Perry Wine Tasting takes place on Oct. 20 and tickets are on sale right now. To purchase tickets and find out more information about the event, visit https://perrymainstreet.ticketspice.com/downtown-perry-wine-tasting-fall-2023?fbclid=IwAR2Uos4lfXhWyS5hFDbFvkRNHsRGYLaAQNuZbJ-hP1mDdNyAKCTG2jNG2ls

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