By Bria Isaacson, News Editor
The annual Wilmore Arts and Crafts Fair will be held in downtown Wilmore on Oct. 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This event will host more than 45 vendors, selling items ranging from jewelry and art to quilts, according to Mary Miller, co-chair of the event.
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“Especially when [the weather is good], many local people as well as people from out of town walk up and down the street looking at the goods…visiting and making use of our restaurants.”
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One of these vendors is The kNook, which consists of Markie Clements and Suzanne Cassel, two women who consider themselves to be “fiber artists,” according to Clements. This encompasses any fabric or paper craft, including jewelry, scarves, hair accessories, dog sweaters and purses. They will sell many of these products at the fair this year.
The kNook has been participating in the Wilmore Arts and Crafts Fair since 2011; however, Cassel sold items there many years before. The only major changes, according to her, are that her booth does not make as much money, which she attributes to the changes in the economy, and that there are now more local artists represented in the fair.
Besides these changes, Miller said that the Wilmore Development Board tries “each year to increase our hospitality by offering refreshments and visiting each booth to make sure the vendors’ needs are being met.”
In addition to shopping, there will also be live music all day. According to Aureol Moore, the other co-chair of the event, the bands Barely Shaken String Band, Wes Houp, Tall Dark and Handsome 4, Cane Run Bluegrass and Dave Butler will be playing. Each band will play for 60 minutes each. The order of their appearances has not yet been set.
The Wilmore Arts and Crafts Fair is in its nineteenth year, and Miller estimates the past few years have had over a thousand people in attendance each year.
“It is a fun event,” Miller said. “Especially when [the weather is good], many local people as well as people from out of town walk up and down the street looking at the goods…visiting and making use of our restaurants.”
Cassel has seen Wilmore restaurants and businesses benefit from the fair.
“Wilmore [Arts and Crafts Fair] is very community-based,” Cassel said. “People are standing around in the street chatting. They come out to see the town and not just to buy. They often buy lunch from a local restaurant [though].”
The fair will be in downtown Wilmore, unless it rains. The rain location is The Providence School on South Lexington Avenue.