New organizer and location for McGregor Arts and Crafts Festival
By Audrey Posten, Times-Register
McGregor’s annual Fall Arts and Crafts Festival has a new organizer and new location this year.
The McGregor-Marquette Center for the Arts is now heading up the event, with an emphasis on fine arts and crafts made by small business owners. Vendors will sell jewelry, paintings, photography, woodworking, ceramics and pottery, knives and cutlery, textiles, soaps, wreaths, iron and brass items and other crafts at the festival, which is set for Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 1-2 and 8-9.
“There’s a good variety. Something for everybody,” said organizers.
Saturdays will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Turner Park, on the west edge of McGregor. The festival was moved from its traditional home in the downtown Triangle Park due to anticipated Main Street construction.
Although the two-year contraction project was postponed until 2023 and 2024, organizers felt this was a good year to make the transition.
“It will give us the chance to get the flow of people down and get them downtown in our businesses, which is the main goal,” organizers said. “There will be a spot for downtown businesses to advertise and have vouchers and information.”
Vendors will set up on the ballfield grass within the Turner Park track. Some will be in individual tents, while others will be inside a larger, enclosed tent to protect their items from the elements.
Organizers are excited the new location will provide additional space as well as expanded parking at the nearby MFL MarMac Middle School.
“We can do more activities in one location. And it will be on the grass, which a lot of vendors like,” said organizers.
Along with the arts and crafts vendors, the event will also feature several food vendors. That includes the McGregor American Legion brat stand, Jayco Fish Mobile Fish Fryer and the Kymar Acres Kymar Kafe.
There will be live music from noon to 3 p.m. each day. Father-daughter duo LaBarge is set for the opening day and Terry McCauley on Oct. 2. The following weekend will have Mark Bateman and Beau Timmerman.
A drumming circle, like the one held in Triangle Park throughout the summer, will run from 10 to 11 a.m. on Oct. 1. Face painting will be available from noon to 2 p.m. that day, and a dance team performance and artist demonstrations are also planned.
Additionally, the McGregor-Marquette Center for the Arts is sponsoring a community quilt project both weekends. Festival attendees can paint something that makes them smile onto an 8-by-8-inch canvas block. These blocks will be assembled into a quilt titled “Miles of Smiles in McGregor” and will be displayed in downtown McGregor.
“There will be a whole variety of fun and interactive activities to bring people to the area and get them downtown,” organizers said.
Find more information on the “McGregor-Marquette Center for the Arts” and “The Left Bank” Facebook pages.