Kevin Kaye's Page

Hi Kevin
I'm copying below a response I recently posted about Cedarburg. I've done well there altho I will say for the past 3 years it has rained sometime during the weekend. Last year we had tornado type winds - we use weights, but in addition my husband & I had to use all our weight hanging on to the tent. Many tents were destroyed.... so if you attend, I strongly suggest be prepared for some type of shower. Watch the deadline - submission is only via mail and Jurying is completed 5/1. Here is my previous post -

This festival is actually all about the art. The "Strawberry Fest" guise just adds to the event. Cedarburg is a small artisian community. One of the highest income per capita cities in the nation, it's entire main street (Washington Ave) area (about 1.5 miles) is completely registered on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearly every shop/store on Washington Ave houses artists shops. Many of the buildings behind the main street buildings house several artisian shops - one of those buildings is an old historic woolen mill that kept it's authenticity but is divided into 20 or so shops (guestimating the amount).

One of the (3) artists groups running the event is the Cedarburg Cultural Center - a nice old building smack dab in the middle of main st. Another group is the Ozaukee Art Center. The third is the Cedar Creek Merchants Settlement Association. The first two are medium specific to painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, fiber, metal, glass, clay, wood, and fine jewelry. The last includes above mediums but will accept a few "crafters" of the highest caliper. Each of the three take care of specific areas of the festival. Typically there are over 250 Art Vendors. The food court area is seperate and consumes approximately 2% of the entire show.

It is a juried show and somewhat difficult to get into as anyone who has vendored there nearly always comes back. From my point of view, it's one of the best run shows I've attended.

Each year I've had customers from other countries - England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Asia and all have told me they fly in just for this weekend event. I typically ship their purchases home. I do see many of them each year.

Last year the crowd seemed a little different, but all in all, I have always done quite well.

Best I can summarize is this is definately all about the arts. The organizing groups work together well to combine just the right fine art mediums to attract well seasoned art customers.