Irmo Admits It Has No Downtown. Here's What's Filling In Around Moore Park Before Okra Strut 2026

"We keep trying to put lipstick on a pig here."

That's how Kerry Powers, president of the Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce, described his own town's commercial center back in December 2022, in an interview about Irmo's plan to finally build itself a real downtown. Nearly four years later, Powers' line is a little less accurate than it used to be, and the evidence is stacking up on the same streets that shut down every fall for the Okra Strut.

The Festival Started as a Radio Joke

In 1973, a local radio personality named Gene McKay mused on air about a hardware store in town called the Ancient Irmese General Store, and wondered aloud whether the "Irmese" were some short tribe of farmers who subsisted on okra. The bit stuck, and the festival that grew out of it became the thing Irmo now calls itself: the nation's original celebration of okra. Decades later, the Strut still pulls an estimated 50,000 people into Moore Park every September, more than four times the roughly 11,600 residents Irmo counted as of that same 2022 reporting.

This year's festival runs Friday, September 25, from 6 to 11 p.m. for the street dance, and Saturday, September 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the parade, the arts and crafts booths, the rides, and the okra eating contest. None of that schedule is new. What's new is what's been built up around it.

What Opened Around Moore Park While Nobody Was Watching

Over the past year and a half, the Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce has hosted a steady run of ribbon cuttings on the same corridors that feed into the festival grounds.

Taken one at a time, none of these is remarkable. A dealership, a homebuilder's back office, a fast-casual chain, a tutoring franchise. Taken together, they represent a specific kind of bet: companies and franchise buyers committing real capital to the belief that people will keep driving these particular stretches of St. Andrews Road and Lake Murray Boulevard for years, not just for one Okra Strut weekend. That's a different signal than a single restaurant opening its doors. It looks more like what commercial developers call absorption, businesses wanting in on a location before anyone officially declares it arrived.

The Main Street Irmo Never Had

Here's the part that explains why this corridor, and not some other stretch of the Midlands, is where that absorption is happening.

Irmo grew up as a railroad stop that supplied workers building the Lake Murray dam in the 1920s, and nobody ever laid out a proper downtown for it. Every town on Irmo's borders has a defined Main Street, Powers pointed out in that same 2022 interview, and Irmo simply doesn't. In response, the town settled on a wooded, currently unpaved parcel next to Community Park, referred to in town records as the same grounds that host the Okra Strut at Moore Park, specifically because it's within walking distance of the festival. Town Council members described a picture of residents grabbing a drink at a nearby brewery, picking up ice cream, and catching a concert in the park without moving their car. Then-Mayor Barry Walker said the site made sense in part because of its closeness to residential neighborhoods he expected would benefit from having a real center nearby.

The project is being funded through a mix of American Rescue Plan Act dollars, hospitality tax collections, and bonds. That funding structure exists because the Town of Irmo does not levy its own residential property tax, so revenue for a project like this has to come from business licenses, hospitality tax, and permitting fees instead. One town official said in 2022 he hoped to open the street within two years. Another predicted four to six.

Nearly four years into that window, the actual Main Street parcel next to Community Park still hasn't broken ground the way the Chipotle on Dutch Fork Road or the Mungo Homes headquarters on Western Lane already have. The surrounding corridor didn't wait around to find out.

Planning Your Okra Strut Weekend

However that downtown plan plays out, the festival itself runs on its own schedule this year, and the logistics are worth knowing before Saturday morning.

The Lexington Health Irmo Okra Strut Parade steps off at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 26, running along St. Andrews Road between Crossroads Intermediate School and Irmo Elementary School. St. Andrews Road closes to traffic at 8:45 a.m., so plan any north-side errands around that window rather than through it.

New for 2026: an inaugural Okra Strut 5K, presented by Palmetto Citizens, runs a flat, chip-timed course that finishes right at the parade. Register by September 8 to lock in a race shirt and finisher medal.

A few rules haven't changed. No pets are allowed inside the festival for safety reasons, and outside coolers and food don't make it past the gate, though there's no shortage of vendors once you're in. Seating fills in fast around Moore Park and the Prisma Health amphitheater, so bring your own chair or blanket if you want a spot. Proceeds still go back into local scholarships and community projects, the same as they have for decades.

Same Joke, Different Streets

None of this changes what the Okra Strut actually is: a bit about a hardware store that turned into the biggest weekend on Irmo's calendar. But the roads you'll drive to get there look different than they did eighteen months ago, and the town's own paperwork suggests that difference isn't an accident. Irmo said in 2022 it didn't have a downtown. It's spent the years since finding out whether that's still true, and the answer seems to be arriving one ribbon cutting at a time.

If you're curious what else is changing block by block around Irmo, or you want a local's read on how a stretch like this affects a specific street or neighborhood, Hannah Norman keeps close tabs on this market because she works in it every day. Browse the Irmo neighborhood guide for more, or let's connect and get your free home valuation whenever you're ready.