Grand Forks’ Downtown Street Fair draws big crowds to city center – Grand Forks Herald

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9 months ago

Grand Forks’ Downtown Street Fair draws big crowds to city center – Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS – The 10th annual Downtown Street Fair brought a steady stream of people, filling the streets in the core of the city with activity Saturday, Aug. 23, during the event organized by the Downtown Development Association.

South of DeMers Avenue, closed-off streets were teeming with people, some with kids in strollers and others with dogs on leashes – there was no shortage of potential customers for the more than 100 artists and crafters.

In addition to vendors, the free event, held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 22-23, featured a classic car show, musical entertainment and a magic show to delight kids.

Sara Lokstad, of Jenkins, Minnesota, readies a t-shirt for sale in a booth displaying a variety of Scandinavian specialty products, including rolling pins, ground coffee and lingonberry jam.

The DDA staff members were expecting 39,000 to 42,000 visitors over two days, with the majority coming from out of town, they said. The event was also scheduled to coincide with UND’s Welcome Weekend, as students moved into dormitories in preparation for the start of fall semester classes.

On Saturday morning, although heavy clouds lingered and mild temperatures hovered in the 60s, the sun shone brightly, at times, and rain did not trouble the event.

Vendors displayed a wide variety of products, including jewelry, sweatshirts and t-shirts, doll clothes, wooden puzzles, baked goods, multiple flavors of packaged popcorn, mug rugs, stuffed animals, and so much more.

Marcine and Richardson, of Pleasantville, Iowa, displayed a wide variety of items, including these decorative wooden signs, hand-crafted for their business Ally-Mar Country Crafts.

Marcine and John Richardson, of Pleasantville, Iowa, displayed oven mitts, fleece throws and blankets, decorative wooden signs, scrubbers, plaques, embroidered dish towels and hanging wooden plant holders, enhanced with windchimes.

Their business, Ally-Mar Country Crafts, is participating in the Downtown Street Fair for the first time, Marcine Richardson said, noting that all their items are hand-crafted, with the help of their daughter and Marcine’s 89-year-old mother.

Mary Skinner (left), of Grand Forks, purchases an item for a friend who recently redecorated her kitchen in gray and is “a cat lover,” she said. Marcine Richardson records the purchase of the wooden gray cat (far right).

She and her husband have been regulars at craft and street fairs since 1983, usually in Iowa and surrounding states.

“We’ve attended quite a few around here, in North Dakota and South Dakota,” she said.

However, on a disappointing note, the couple arrived at their display Saturday morning to find that five large blankets, valued altogether at $250, had been stolen.

Nothing like has happened before, said Richardson, noting that security had been on-site and a police report had been filed. “My best guess is 10 to 12 of us” lost goods to theft.

Nonetheless, they’ve been encouraged by brisk sales Friday, enough to cover expenses, John Richardson said. “Today decides if we come back.”

Oren Long describes the features and benefits of he Arctic Lava Mobile Sauna to a visitor during the Downtown Street Fair on Saturday, Aug. 23, in Grand Forks.

Possibly the most unusual vendor was Arctic Lava Mobile Sauna, a display set up to offer visitors a close-up glimpse into a mobile sauna and an opportunity to learn about the health and social benefits of the sauna experience.

“We’re trying to bring more saunas to the community, especially during winter months,” said Oren Long, owner of the rental business, who moved from Honolulu, Hawaii, in October to be closer to family in the Thompson, North Dakota, area.

The sauna, which offers a way to “hang out a little bit differently,” would be well-received in this area, Long said, because of the predominance of people with a Scandinavian background.

His business provides “a blend of heritage and the healing culture of high heat,” he said. With his start-up business, his goal is “getting awareness out and making new friends – to inspire more people to sauna.”

Staff members of the All Pets Hospital of Grand Forks were on hand to publicize their Halloween-themed event, promising “food, music and fun,” on Oct. 25.

Although the artwork appears to be polished marble, it is wood that’s been painted and finished with a layer of epoxy, said Jen Linck-Tollefsbol, a Twin Cities-area artist.

Jen Linck-Tollefsbol, who lives just east of the Twin Cities metro, was participating as a Downtown Street Fair vendor for the third time, she said.

Her framed artwork – with two-dimensional animal figures, profiles of states such as North Dakota and Minnesota, and clusters of pine trees – appeared to be crafted from polished marble. But “it’s wood painted to look like stone; I put epoxy over it as a finish,” Linck-Tollefsbol said.

“People do this on countertops, canvases, tiles. I decided to go with wood.”

About the street fair, “I enjoy it here,” she said, noting that she also participates as a vendor at the Art Fest event in June at University Park.

Mike Baumann, of Lokstad Rolling Pins, Jenkins, Minnesota, describes the qualities of his Scandinavian blend coffees to Sandy Magnusson of Argyle, Minnesota, during the Downtown Street Fair on Saturday, Aug. 23, in Grand Forks.

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