The Craft Lake City DIY Festival is happening this week, Aug. 11-13. It’s an iconic SLC market featuring local vendors and small businesses. Founder and Executive Director Angela H. Brown tells us about the upcoming festival as well as its humble beginnings.
How did Craft Lake City start?
“The very first Craft Lake City DIY Festival happened in 2009 at the Gallivan Center. There was no admission charge. We had 72 artisans, four food vendors, eight or nine performers on one stage, and that was it. It was just a really fun one-day event.
[Back then] local artisans had no place that was giving them a voice. There was no community for them in Salt Lake, and they were feeling like they needed to leave to bigger markets. That’s one of the reasons why we created the event, to give them a place where they could meet like-minded individuals, network with other creatives, and sell their work to a really captive audience. I wanted to create a place for locals. We've got some incredible creatives, some of the best in the nation or even in the world right here in our own backyard.”
How has it changed to what it is now?
“We were at the Gallivan Center for 10 years. We loved activating that space, but we were really just bursting at the seams and couldn't grow the festival anymore. So we made the change in 2019 to go down to the Utah State Fairpark.
Change is hard. And with that, we always try and look at opportunities. With the Fairpark, a huge opportunity was to activate the west side, which is something that I'm passionate about as a west sider myself.”
What’s your favorite thing to craft?
“I like to make jokes and say my favorite thing to craft are events because I spend so much time on those, but honestly, my craft started with silver gelatin photography. That was my first love and actually what I got my degree in. [In my work with SLUG magazine] and my work with Craft Lake City, I'm still able to flex those skills, but printing in the old fashioned dark room is so exciting to me. That is my number one craft although I don't get to do it as much as I'd like.”
Listen to our City Cast Salt Lake interview with Brown where we asked: Is Craft Lake City punk? [City Cast Salt Lake 🎧]
