This weekend, October 24 to October 26th, the annual Harvest Festival took place at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Celebrating its 53rd year, the festival is a place for local artists and vendors to showcase their work. Many of the sellers have been participating for years, selling their original, handmade items.
Vendors and Artists
“[I’ve been coming for] about 15 years… The type of people are very friendly, very nice, good to deal with. It’s an environment where I don’t have to worry about rain and weather coming too. The Harvest Festival treats us very well as far as being an artist,” said Brian Lane, the founder of Mission City Pens.
The harvest festival had items for all kinds of people, from baked loaves to real crystals imported all the way from Austria. While the products are different for each stall, they all share a unique backstory of how their businesses started. Some began their crafts from early life such as a porcelain artist who carves lamps, playing with degrees of light as it shines through the ceramic.
“I was shown one by a collector when I was a young man and I was blown away by the technique because it’s an old art from the 1800s. And I said, why isn’t anybody doing this? And the clouds parted and a big arm came out of the sky and pointed at me and said, because you’re going to.” said Marty Kubicki, a porcelain artist.
Others started their business later in life, deciding to pick up a new skill which evolved into a much larger project.
“ I was in a tie-dye store in San Francisco, buying, because I’ve always loved it. And I just looked around and thought I could do this. So I went home and watched a million YouTube videos. Bought a Jacquard starter kit. Cement. And just started doing it. It’s a lot of long hours of dyeing, rinsing, and ironing.” said Gail Barsky, an Ice-dye Tie Dye Artist.
Business Opportunities
The vendors all agree that setting up for a festival like this one is time consuming, but overall a great business opportunity for them and a way to find loyal customers as they return to the same place over the years.
“I need to make all of the jewelry, so I want to be well stocked in all my different designs as well. And it’s a matter of having the booth. You know, I’ve been doing shows for many, many years, so it’s having the proper decor for the booth and making it pretty and attractive and having good lighting.” said jewelry maker Barbara Welsh.
Overall, the vendors love participating in community events such as this, they love the customers and the family feeling they get to build over time.
“Yesterday I had a lot of customers come by that remember the Harvest Festival. In Brooks Hall in the 90s, and we reminisced together and then they’re still coming here. It’s amazing.” said Kubicki.
