KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
The 53rd annual SantaCaliGon Days Festival arrives this weekend at Independence Square and, for some small business owners in the area, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
Nanette Pickens co-founded Pickens Sweet Treats in 2016 with her sister, Natalie. It started in a commercial kitchen as a wholesale, online and event-based operation.
“Then, at the very end of 2023, we opened up the storefront here on the Independence Square,” Pickens said.
The sisters thoroughly enjoyed the store’s first SantaCaliGon Festival last Labor Day weekend.
“It was fantastic, yes,” Pickens said. “So many people come out. We really loved it. Being a shop owner here, we had so many people that came through and came into the shop and shopped our booth out front, too. It was really a great, positive experience.”
With mild temperatures and no rain in the forecast, organizers expect a great turnout for this year’s festival and carnival, which regularly draws more than 200,000 visitors across the event’s four days.
“This is a huge deal,” Independence Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors member Eric Knipp, who coordinates the acts for the main stage, said. “The community looks forward to this every year. ... We have people that grew up coming here. They're bringing their kids here, their grandkids here, so it is really a community festival.”
It’s important for Independence from a commerce perspective, but it’s also a chance to tell the city’s story.
“The chamber does a great job of balancing the fun of a fair — the crafts and the vendors they find, all the food trucks — but also sharing the history of independence,” Pickens said. “I think that it really is a fun time for all.”
But yes, the boon for local businesses, like Pickens Sweet Treats, is the icing on the SantaCaliGon cake.
“This year we're bringing out our frozen chocolate-dipped cheesecakes,” Pickens said. “It's a nice-sized cheesecake dipped in chocolate that we'll be selling starting this weekend and then going forward. We also brought out caramel apples. Both of them are great fair food.”
—
