BEAUFORT, S.C. () — In the upcoming 10 days, visitors are anticipated to boost their spending by 10% in Beaufort due to the city’s most significant event of the year, the Annual Beaufort Water Festival.

But the slight change in this year’s operations had some businesses questioning but hoping that number remains.

“Everybody’s still going to come, I feel, and probably even more people,” said Kylie Archer, a waitress at Q on Bay.

Archer along with several other businesses are holding onto that hope.

With just two weeks remaining before the commencement of the 69th Annual Beaufort Water Festival, officials in the City of Beaufort declared that the section of Henry C. Chambers Park closest to the waterfront would be closed indefinitely.

“The condition of the sea wall is somewhat alarming as the Water Festival approaches,” stated Kevin Cuppia, proprietor of Modern Jewelers on Bay Street. “It’s conceivable this could turn into a project lasting two to three years.”

While the worry for many businesses is the seawall closures’ long-term effects, several other businesses are focused on the next 10 days.

“I know this time of year, the businesses, they depend a lot on us.  You know, especially with the restaurants,” said Todd Stowe, the commodore for the 69^th Annual Water Fest.

The initial fear for some of those businesses was the event, which brings an average of $7 million to the area, wouldn’t happen.

But Stowe said that was never really an option for them, and the show would continue.

“The capacity has been lowered a little bit. You can’t stand on the sea wall, which is kind of a bummer. But other than that, not much has changed,” said Stowe.

Different entry points into the festival, and a few shifted locations for events are the only other changes Stowe mentioned.

Businesses said the seawall closure lowering the festivals capacity may work in their favor by forcing more people into the downtown area.

“We hope for a lot of more tourists coming in.  Everybody has, like, their families coming in and family friends as well. So, we expect a lot more business than we have been,” said Archer.

Operations Manager for Plums Inc. Jennifer Mader said, “I’m not really sure what to expect because people want to be out. They want to see people. This is the time of year where you just you know, you’ll see the people you haven’t seen in two or three years. So, I’m hoping that keeps them coming out. I hope that it doesn’t scare them because it’s still beautiful out there.”

Mader said that businesses open at night get more benefits from the festival. During the day, several business owners said that things are slow.

“We have so many people coming in from out of town for the Water Festival that forget, like how many cool shops, how many cute coffee shops and things that we have downtown. So, I’d really love them to come and really see the full experience that we have to offer down here,” said Mader.

Cuppia with Modern Jewelers agreed.

“There’s nothing going on during the day. So, what I would really like to tell the customers and people who might want to shop downtown, come downtown during the festival,” said Cuppia. “The market goes on, they’ve got T-shirt sales, but there’s really no events going on. There’s plenty of parking downtown during the festival and the stores are open and ready for business.”

Many business owners were at first scared when the seawall was indefinitely closed, but now that they know there’s only a slight change to this year’s Water Festival, they’re looking forward to a busy week for business.