Craft Culture Market owner Karalyn Lockhart says the weekend event at the Kelowna Curling Club finally felt like the good old days before the pandemic took over the world.
Lockhart described the lack of markets and the hardship on her business as awful.
“Craft Culture, as well as the 300 plus small businesses of the vendors that we support each year by giving them a platform to sell, it was all kiboshed. We couldn’t sell our stuff, we couldn’t open our doors to anyone, so it was really challenging.”
Lockhart says they made do with other business ideas during the pandemic, but she is thrilled to be back in full swing.
“There’s nothing like meeting the artists face-to-face.”
The market opened Saturday (Apr. 1) at 10 a.m., but Lockhart says people were lined up outside beforehand.
“Saturday morning is usually our biggest crowd… We opened the doors and we had 100, 200 people lined up. That’s a really good feeling on Saturday morning.”
The market featured 140 vendors mainly from the Okanagan.
Her favourite part of hosting these markets, Lockhart says is watching the vendors grow.
“Sometimes we see them start in their basements and then they work their way up to a storefront.”
The market ran through Sunday as well, with vendors packing up to head home at 4 p.m.
Craft Culture takes over the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre next, with a two day event planned for Apr. 22-23.
Learn more about the markets or become a vendor by visiting craftculture.ca
READ MORE: Vinyl upon vinyl: early bird turnout packs the room for Kelowna record fair
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