People's Fair offers something for everyone - The Denver Post

People's Fair offers something for everyone - The Denver Post
Mary Jane Butler wound up between two distinctly different concessions at the People's Fair on Saturday, but the owner of Open Range Art Dolls in Walsenburg managed to stay upbeat about it.

"Business was good last year and this is my second time at the fair, but I'm not sure how well I'll do this time after being placed between tie-dye and beef jerky," Butler joked.

Not to worry. Her concession drew festivalgoers who ogled a variety of dolls wearing colorful machine-quilted dresses with clay polymer faces and limbs made from tree branches that Butler found around her home.

Butler's customers were among the thousands of people who strolled through the streets of Denver's Civic Center during the 39th People's Fair,
People's Fair

* View images from People's Fair in Denver June 6.

which continues today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Last year, the event drew up to 125,000 people each day — the numbers are tracked by the amount of tickets sold, according to Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods Inc., or CHUN, a nonprofit that has been putting the event since 1971.

This year's fair features 130 local bands on six stages, 350 vendors and 80 nonprofit organizations. "First and foremost, we are an arts and crafts festival, but nonprofits are very important to us to promote community service," said Andrea Furness, assistant director of CHUN.

The aromas of barbecue meats, roasted corn, green chile and funnel cakes wafted into the air as people plunked down $5 for eight tickets to get food or drinks.

Artists sold glass, silver and gold jewelry, paintings, photography, and furniture while vendors sold everything from bowls made from dead standing Aspen trees to soy candles.

Organizations touted the environment, politicians, arts and entertainment, criminal-justice reform and more while pet-rescue organizations featured adoptable dogs and cats.

Bob and Jeunkl Major of Ecosystems of Hawaii were spending their second year at the fair. The couple from Oahu, Hawaii, sold Opae'ula, small red shrimp that live in glass containers that have been filled with coral, seashells or lava but don't require feeding or cleaning.

"The nature of crafts here is higher end and crowds more eclectic," Bob Major said. "It's a great mix of everybody."

Arts and crafts were aplenty, but it was bubbles and tasty dips that caught the interest of Diane Marks of Arvada and her daughter, Emilie, 9.

"I like the bubbles," Emilie said of a bubble tower in the kid's area while her mother tasted dips.

"There's something for everybody of all ages," Diane Marks said. "I like the diversity, and I love all the stands."