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| - I'm not super big on holiday sh*t. In fact, I f*cking hate it. But when I hear there's a market that has hand-made this & that and beer aaand outdoor grilling... well, now you've piqued my interest.
Right off the bat I liked this event because I got a free full-size Fuze beverage thing before I even walked in the door. I'd never tried Fuze before and I'm also very poor so the idea of being able to get something tasty for $0 was, as you can imagine, a pretty big draw for a hoodrat like me. moving on...
On a late Saturday afternoon the market was reasonably packed, but not as bad as some the hand-made markets with beer that I've attended back home. I like that the vendors were set up a bit segregated so anything with or for kids was kind of off to the side since kids are infamous for gumming up the works at crowded fests. The separation helped me avoid any situations where I might have to explain myself after "accidentally" kicking some child who's not yet mentally capable of recognizing the unspoken but agreed upon social flow of the marketplace, and over all kept the babies and their P's out of my impatient hair though there was at least one mother(f*cker) who thought the busy and crowded market was the perfect place to teach her 10-month old how to walk, and for that I mentally sentenced her to death by antique steam-punk firing squad... which conveniently there was a booth for.
There were a few really neat vendors but because it seemed like most or all were to limited to their area of one standard-size folding table and the space behind it. I don't think shops were able to display too many items and I'm going to assuming that because of the table-size limitation. Vendors had to pick and choose a limited variety of stock to bring/display and that caused a lot of the vendors inventory to look really mis-matched and random. As an example, it seemed pretty par for the course to see one single vendor selling art prints of movie stills, knit owl barrettes and steam-punk business card holders, and while I'm sure there's a market for all of those things, there was a disconnection in the goods that translated to making the table look less desirable.
On the other hand, because vendors had just a single table space and not an area where they could create a store cubby type nook with multiple tables and curtains, there was no getting grid-locked into a booth and not being able to get in or out or even see the goods. You were able to walk straight through the three main aisles and pretty clearly see what kind of stuff each vendor offered without having to squish in and fight for a spot to view the table, which was really nice and saved a lot of time, though it did mean that each shopper spent less time looking at a vendor's goods than the cubby/nook mock storefront way where you sort of get sucked in and trapped in into looking more and buying more.
My favorite booths were the craft beer candles that smelled fantastic and were in old glass beer bottle that had been sawed in half and smoothed over as well as the super crowded jewelry vendor in the very back. I ended up getting (or being gifted by a very special someone) this bullet necklace I'd been eyeing.
This market was great because while the shopping was all indoor, there was a beer tent outside, a hula hoop station (also a vendor) and multiple local restaurants had brought their goods and set up shop to grill on the plaza outside the market. And while everything smelled like delicious, smoky heaven, the lines were wrapping around the nearby businesses so we opted to wait it out and grab food elsewhere.
I would definitely recommend I made it market to anyone with an urge to shop local and an hour or so to kill. It's not a destination or all day type thing, but it's a great mix of quality craft and the community, as well as being far from any super boring Holly Hobby church craft fair type thing. Check it out when it's in town. It's totally free to attend and fun way to spend an afternoon with friends, fam, kids or just yourself.
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