Saturday at the River Festival Craft Show

Saturday my friend Sally and I went to our Annual River Festival Craft Show. The event is quoted as being the largest in in the state, with over 350,000 in annual attendance. And they were all at the Craft Show on Saturday. Yep, all 350,000! Or at least close.

For the first time Sally and I could remember, many of the streets were blocked off. Now they always block off streets for the runners, but this year you couldn't get within half a mile of the place, not even if you paid as much as $10.00 for parking. We drove around for nearly 40 minutes before finding anything halfway close. Where Sally and I parked, it took us around 20 minutes to walk to the craft show, and we were in a strict 2 hour limit parking spot. The meter even read that you could put more money in, but you had to move after 2 hours or be ticketed, regardless of whether there was money on the meter or not. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the gist. So, we had very little time to view all the crafts and never made it to the second floor inside Century II where the event was held (both inside and out).

As craft shows go, there wasn't a whole lot of new or unusual art. Also, only one "mixed media" booth, which I didn't exactly call mixed media, although technically it was. More on that later.

For the most part, I'll let the photos tell the story. I'll comment when necessary.






My friend, Sally.





I loved the hands.

This place didn't allow photos. When I asked for a business card, I learned they were from Texas and had NO web site, blog, or Etsy shop. To come this far with no way to get back to them, shows poor marketing skills.



This place was very popular.







Had to take a photo of the hands. Thought of Patty S, who collects them too.



Sally and I have now moved inside.

You can see the upper floor, but we never made it there.





Sally bought cards at this booth. The woman and her husband run a no-kill privately funded animal rescue farm in MO. They sell their art to pay for the care of the animals. I asked her if she knew Bernie Berlin. For some reason, I thought anyone making mixed media would have heard of Bernie.

The mixed media was paint on wood and paper clay added for embellishments. Don't get me wrong, the art was very good. But to be the only artist representing mixed media in the entire show was a bit sad and frustrating for me.

On our way back to the car, I stopped to take a few pictures

of our Historical Museum's exterior.

Later we ate at a sandwich shop full of blarney.

I had NO idea River Fest had a blog. So, I must honor the blog today. Not much to say, other than it has a good link to some YouTube videos.