This Saturday arts and crafts vendors from all over the region will once again descend upon the Merrittville Speedway to take part in the Merrittville's Annual Fall Craft & Vendor Fair.
Locals will be able to walk between the vendors’ stalls and buy all sort of hand-crafted wares, from scarves to paintings, woodworking, knitting, and there’s even going to be a dog rescue.
The event is organized by best friends Lorraine Spiece, who co-owns the Merritville Speedway with her husband Don, and Tracy Palleschi.
Says Palleschi, “We try not to do duplicate tables so everybody will have something a little different. The locals can just grab a coffee, grab something to eat, and walk through and enjoy a little bit of shopping.”
The fair, which is in its fourth year, started out as a side project for Palleschi and Spiece, but it quickly blew up, going from 30 vendors in its first year to now hosting almost 120 of them.
“We kind of opened it up to our friends just to see if anyone wanted a spot to do something and that’s how it grew, word of mouth really, and getting us together,” says Palleschi.
Palleschi and Spiece credit their friendship as to why the fair has been such a success.
“We have a friendship I can’t even quite explain,” says Palleschi.
“We’re busy people, we love to be busy 24/7 so we’re always doing something together, coming up with ideas. It’s kind of a thing where we talk every day, wether or not we’re working on something. Wether it’s a text or whatever, if we haven’t seen each other in a couple of days it’s odd.”
As the fair has gotten bigger it’s become more work to organize but Palleschi and Spiece say they don’t mind.
“We don’t think it’s challenging because we love it,“ says Palleschi.
“We know all the vendors. It’s nice to have that familiarity. We enjoy getting everybody together and just the way people are reacting to it, it’s becoming like a little family you could say.”
Merrittville's 4th Annual Fall Craft & Vendor Fair is held this Saturday, October 23 at the Merrittville Speedway. The event starts at 9.30AM and will run until 4.00PM. Entry is free.
