Art in Park a success despite Sunday rain
Staff writer
One day out of two isn’t bad.
Despite a barrage of rain Sunday preventing more turning out to Marion’s Art in the Park and Craft Show this weekend, the event still was considered a success, with thousands from around the country coming to shop and enjoy Central Park.
“The crowd’s been steady,” organizer Margo Yates said Saturday.
Carol Laue, who helped run the information booth, said roughly 150 vendors had signed up for this year’s show, an increase from prior years.
Saturday was humid, and visitors stayed cool by sipping drinks in the shade. A man with a guitar serenaded passersby, and Clemo Haddox, owner of DC’s Juntiques, sat at his stand, a large fan pointed at the back of his head.
DC’s Juntiques was named for Haddox’s mother, Donnie Carroll.
“Mom and Dad are the ones that started this,” he said, gesturing to the elegant metal sculptures surrounding him at his stand. “Mom used to always go to yard sales, come back with antiques. Dad and I always kidded her, saying, ‘It’s your junk’. So we took ‘junk’ and ‘antiques’ and came up with Juntiques.”
Haddox’s parents ran the business from 1999 until 2011, when he and his brother took over.
He attends around 30 fairs a year. After Marion, he’s going to North Dakota, then Minnesota.
Haddox has come to Art in the Park for four years.
“I enjoy the people here,” he said. “You can actually sit back and relax, get to visit with people instead of having to hurry.”
Rolandra Brown of Loni’s Handmade Keychains and More spoke similarly.
“It’s calmer, it’s quieter,” she said of Art in the Park.
Brown ran perhaps the most colorful stand of the show, a large tent chock-full of keychains, necklaces, buttons, and plushies.
Keenan Lang and a few other Marion High School students sold slices of Gambino’s pizza to raise money for the cross country team.
“We’ll probably use it to go out to eat after one of the meets,” Lang said. Team members still aren’t sure where to eat.
“A good steak place,” Lang suggested.
Chelsi Koehn of Marion, along with some of her family members, also was fundraising. Her husband had made dozens of baked goods from scratch for the family’s booth.
The money was going toward her daughter’s dance competitions.
Hot coffee wasn’t a big seller given the heat, but the cookies went fast.
“Margo was great to work with to get the booth set up, and we’ve had a lot of success,” she said. “We’ve met a lot of people from out of town, and seen a lot of people we know. It’s been great.”