Twenty antique and craft vendors from around the state have already reserved booth space for Batesville’s 2nd Annual Autumn Antique and Crafts Festival, set for October 22-23. Vendors scheduled to date include Junction Leather (belts, wallets, and quality leather products), Florence Bullington (antiques and quilts), landscape artist Lanny Canady, Francine Everett (antiques and furniture), and sixteen others. Main Street executive director Paula Grimes is “planning for as many as fifty vendors.” All vendors will be listed in the festival program, which will be available at all participation stores and other locations.
Vendor space is available downtown outdoors at the Pocket Park or indoors at the newly renovated Landers Theater building, now home to the Fellowship Bible Church, and the Cinnamon Stick Restaurant on lower main. Outdoors spaces, 10×10, are $10/day or $15 both days; indoor spaces, also 10×10, are available for $15/day or $25 both days. Space will be allotted on a “first come, first served” basis and must be paid in advance. Contact Paula Grimes, at 870-793-4632 or downtownbatesville@sbcglobal.net.
Batesville and Independence County businesses interested in becoming official participants should also contact Grimes. Participating businesses are asked to be open from at least 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on each day of the festival. They will be included in festival print materials and promotion at no cost. Festival organizers are urging area restaurants, hotels, and businesses to become involved by offering specials or discounts to visitors and vendors, using their changeable letter signs and electronic billboards to welcome visitors, and placing posters in their windows.
The festival will include several special events. Pat Cash of Mountain View, better known as Aunt Minnie, will perform in the Pocket Park at a festival kick-off lunch on Friday. Citizens Bank employees will be grilling free burgers and franks for those attending. Other activities will be announced.
The Autumn Antique and Crafts Festival is sponsored by Main Street Batesville, First Community Bank, Citizen’s Bank, FutureFuel Chemical Company, Ozark Gateway Tourist Council, and the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce. Additional sponsorship opportunities with significant sponsor benefits and visibility are available; contact Bob Pest at 870-251-1189 or bobpest@wildblue.net
