Hillsboro crafts fair brings thousands
Staff writer
Hillsboro’s 55th arts and crafts fair brought 226 vendors, 341 booths, and nearly 15,000 shoppers Saturday.
Shoppers swarmed through muggy heat looking for the perfect things to buy.
Vendors from across the country offered household décor, clothing, food items, flavored coffees, jewelry, candles, scented wax melts, body sprays, scented soap bars, lotions, and a host of other goods along four blocks of Main St. and two blocks of Grand Ave.
Wichita beekeepers Lance and Kim Bartel, along with their 8-year-old son, Ethan, ran a booth in the 100 block of S. Main St.
Among their offerings were honey and molded beeswax candles in routine and gothic shapes.
It was their first exhibit at Hillsboro’s craft fair. That’s because this was their first year harvesting from their bees.
Longtime Hillsboro beekeeper John McMinn stopped to chat with the Bartels.
The men talked about the number of hives each has — McMinn has 100 in the Hillsboro area — and how learning beekeeping was going.
McMinn offered Bartel harvesting tips.
Food vendors — 21 of them — set up on sidewalks and in the street, doing brisk business with long lines of hungry customers waiting to be served.
Their offerings included Indian tacos, Hillsboro sausage from Dale’s Supermarket, sausage on a stick, peppernuts, grilled sausage, chicken, smoked beef, hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, pies, cake, Bierocks, street corn, spring rolls, roasted nuts, and caramel apples.
Hillsboro police said humidity and heat caused some calls to EMS.