The 14th Annual Craft Lake City Craft Festival presented by Harmons was Craft Lake’s largest offering yet, with more than 350 local artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, young entrepreneurs, artists and STEM exhibitors, throughout the weekend of August 12-14. These three days? A kind of blur.
A lot stands out, though, and what you saw was partly dependent on the day you came – Friday had Harmonies‘ VIP lounge, offering excellent seats for excellent artists like, XDX, Detzany, Angie Small and headliner Joshua James. Throughout the weekend, outdoor and indoor artisans occupied the entire southern half of the fairgrounds. Participants (and their dogs) browsed through them all, including vintage vendors like Maj MAEKwhich brought upcycled looks and retro patterns, artisans like SoyMurgawhich offered artisanal perfumes, sprays and self-care products, and food vendors like First Corn who showed us the tasty meaning of “pre-Hispanic vegetarian food”.
On Saturday, young entrepreneurs hawked their bespoke products, such as Sydney’s seaside creations, selling handmade jewelry made from shells. It was also Pacific Islands Heritage Day, so we celebrated with artisans love Kalani Tonga, a hafekasi (biracial Tongan/Swedish) artist and published author from Midvale whose works take traditional Polynesian motifs and employ them in unusual ways and with non-traditional colors. Our Google Fiber STEM Building hosted a sustainability day, giving DIY engineers like fungal focus a spotlight to show us how mushrooms are linked to the health of our planet.
On Sunday, many people had participated in at least one of the DIY workshops. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art offered participants the chance to contribute to a mural, and the Art Museum of Utah let’s all help create a modular landscape design. We even hosted New Town Movementit is Barn Burner Dance Party– because hey, even a family event needs a DJ.
Next year’s DIY Fest (every year the second week of August) has some big shoes to fill. 2022 was the most crafters Craft Lake City has ever had at a craft festival, so our expectations for next year – the 15th year of DIY Fest—are high. We’ll see you then, but enjoy our photo coverage of the event (we’ll update it over the week!), and don’t miss us for holiday market later this winter!
Gallery updated throughout the week
friday august 12
Call Tyson // @clancycoop
The whole weekend
John Barkiple // [email protected]
Photo: John Barkiple
Photo: John Barkiple
