Vendors fill streets with arts, crafts, food

Traffic clogged streets and cars piled into overflowing parking lots as thousands of people from Milledgeville and out of town sauntered toward the Deep Roots Festival. Hundreds of tents lined Hancock and Montgomery streets, erecting a circus of sorts, drawing consumers to Milledgeville in droves. Though the smell of roasting barbecue wafted through the streets in the morning and the sounds of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals lit up the night show, street vendors stole the attentions of the crowds in the middle of the day and served as the heart of the Deep Roots Festival.

“(We) spent a great deal of time visiting other festivals and looking for quality vendors and approaching them about our festival so that we could attract the better ones,” Belinda Washlesky, executive director of the Milledgeville Mainstreet program, said.

From morning until evening, crowds spent the day shopping at a variety of stands, offering anything from handcrafted jewelry to free environmentally friendly bags at a nonprofit recycling tent. With such variety, the sellers and shops at Deep Roots brought a little bit of everything to Milledgeville.

“I enjoyed the shops, especially the jewelry,” sophomore Elaine Denovellis said. “I bought an interesting pair of earrings, made out of bottle caps, that I could not have bought at a regular store.”

Many vendors seemed very happy with the large number of shoppers and volunteers from the Milledgeville Mainstreet program.

“Everyone’s just really nice,” Ellen Hound, jewelry designer, said about the festival. “Folks came around this morning and asked if I needed help setting stuff up. I didn’t, but it was nice to be asked. I definitely think I’ll be back next year.”

Though many vendors offered handcrafted jewelry, others offered a variety of crafts. Dory Franklin and Constance Neely sold soap and wool scarves from Hallowed Hawk farm, their sheep farm in Oconee County where they do research on agriculture.

“We’ve enjoyed the festival, we’re new to the festival though, so people probably aren’t quite sure what sheep’s milk soap is,” Neely said. “It’s awesome, people have to try it, then they’ll know it’s a great soap.”

From the bathroom to the barn, Sheryl Hardage sold many flower arrangements and pieces of horseshoe art throughout the day. From horseshoe pumpkins to flowers, Hardage offers a wide variety of crafts and enjoys selling her work at the festival.

“This is our third or fourth year coming,” Hardage said. “I like it, and we’ll continue coming back. We do good business, it’s local and there’s a good crowd.”

Also making appearances, nonprofit organizations like ARF and an environmental awareness program opened tents to inform visitors about animal adoption and Milledgeville’s single-stream recycling program, respectively.

“The festival grew this year, especially in arts and crafts,” Washlesky said. “This is the biggest event for Milledgeville MainStreet and I think for all of Milledgeville.”

Consumers also seemed pleased with the added growth and the variety of vendors. As annual tradition, the festival seems likely to continue to draw more visitors and vendors in years to come.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 30 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry