BELLA VISTA — Cold weather this year hampered some of the activity at the two area annual craft fairs, but the vendors still brought products, and the visitors still shopped.

The Bella Vista Arts & Crafts Festival was held for three days, Oct. 15-17, near the intersection of Arkansas highways 279 and 340.

The four-day Spanker Creek Farm Arts & Craft Fair took place Oct. 15-18 at Spanker Creek Farm on West Mc-Nelly Road.

The most challenging problem during the Bella Vista festival was the cold, director Misty Baker said.

“We didn’t have pouring rain,” she said. “It would have been much worse. People would have stayed home.”

In spite of the weather and the tough economy, officials from both fairs reported good sales.

In 2008, the Bella Vista festival had the highest sales in five years, Baker said. This year, the vendors came within a couple thousand dollars of matching last year’s high.

“A lot of our vendors did very well,” Spanker Creek promoter Patti Hyde said.

Bella Vista Festival

“Bella Vista topped War Eagle as the best venue,” Baker said. “This is the best place.”

The organizers stuck to their promise to vendors and shoppers, Baker said. “Nothing (at the Bella Vista festival) is mass-produced.”

The director asked two vendors, who were not selling handmade goods, to leave.

The festival will always have booths selling products made by the people in the booth, Baker said.

About 50,000 shoppers checked outthe handmade goods, said Tom Pyatt of the Sunrise Rotary Club. They came in by the carloads, which were parked by about a dozen club members each day.

The Village Art Club uses the annual event as its major fundraiser. The club’s share of the money earned will be used to provide scholarhips to artists and artisans; to fund arts and crafts workshops; and to support Wishing Spring Gallery, where local artists and crafters sell their creations.

Spanker Creek

The third year for the Spanker Creek Farm Arts & Craft Fair resulted in an increase in visitors, Hyde said.

“Roughly 35,000 to 40,000 people came through,” she said. “I attribute it to the atmosphere down here with our creek and rock formations.”

Many of the 250 vendors went home with far emptier trailers than they brought, but one did say sales were down slightly this year, Hyde said.

This year there was truly something for everybody, even the men in the crowds. Tired Iron of the Ozarks, with their tractors and machines, chain saw sculptor Scott Winford, and the Bella Vista Woodcarving Club demonstrating their talents were all geared toward those visitors.

“It gives them something to do,” Hyde said.

The woodcarvers and Tired Iron were not charged for their space, Hyde said, and she would welcome other Bella Vista groups in the future that would like to demonstrate their art by offering them free space as well.

“There are many arts that are being lost,” Hyde said,

Overall Hyde said they were very happy.

“Things went very smoothly,” she said.

Staff Writer Gaynell Belloni contributed to the story.

Business, Pages 10 on 10/28/2009

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