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Kids showcase their handmade puppets at last year's Cyclops Fest, a festival celebrating hand-crafted wares. (Submitted photo)
Handmade festival ‘Cyclops’ returns
- Published: September 11, 2012
Cyclops Fest returns on Saturday, Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the John Bryan Center, with booths both inside the gymnasium and outside on the lawn. This year’s event features twice as many vendors at over 80 stalls, a craft beer garden, live music all day, dozens of do-it-yourself demonstrations and workshops and a talk by representatives of Etsy, the biggest online global marketplace for handmade.
The unique opportunity to meet the craftsperson — and in many cases watch them create their wares on-site — is what drew 3,000 to 5,000 people to last year’s inaugural event and what will likely bring the crowds back this weekend, organizers said. A joint production of Galvin, Brian Johnson of Dayton and Paul Baker of local screen printing outfit Basho Apparel, Cyclops is unique in the festival world for its singular focus on handmade: vendors can only sell items that they themselves have created.
This year’s live demos run the gamut from jewelry-making and t-shirt screen printing to button earring-making, sand-painting and live graffiti. Free Mohawks will be offered by Derailed Hair Salon in Dayton and kids can create free “flowerbombs” by mixing with wildflower seeds and clay with the Grassroots Enrichment Center, also of Dayton. An eclectic mix of bands and DJs will entertain throughout the day, including Dayton DJ Ruckus Roboticus, armed with a turntable and drum machine, Columbus indie rock quartet Tin Armor, Athens hip-hop group Grey Market and WYSO “Jazz Forward” host Nicky Illiopolis.
Check out photos from Cyclops Fest 2011:
Read the full story in the Sept. 13 issue of the News.
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