FERGUS – Whether they came for yarn, to meet other fibre art enthusiasts, to see animals or just enjoy a Saturday afternoon outdoors, a crowd flocked to Downtown Fergus marking the first Fergus Fibre Festival as a success.
St. Andrew Street between St. David Street and Provost Lane was closed Saturday morning to make way for 37 vendors selling yarn and other associated items but also displaying goats, sheep and even a rabbit they get fibre from and some food vendors for those who came to check out the inaugural festival.
With just a few more hours left in the festival, St. Andrew Street had a sea of people, both visiting and local, gathering at various vendors and enjoying a nice Saturday afternoon.
“Turnout has far exceeded all of our expectations,” said Fergus Yarn Co. owner Andrea Gal-Leising, also a coordinator of the festival.
“For a first year fibre festival usually it has a smaller turnout but everybody came out to support Fergus.”
And it’s not your grandma’s hobby anymore either, vendors and volunteers stressed.
Jeremy Nicholls, volunteer and husband of coordinator Miranda Holmes of String Theory, said his wife tells him men and young people come in all the time to buy at her shop. The crowd at the festival was also a wide mix of people of all ages and genders.
“I definitely feel that knitting has become a traditional thing but also counterculture,” Gal-Leising said. “There’s a lot of young knitters with tattoos and knitting unique garments you can’t buy in a store and some of that is really coming down generations. It’s kind of exciting.”
Pat Cooper, owner of As The Wheel Turns, said this has been her experience as well. The first wheel she sold was a child sized wheel for two young girls whose mom was going to show them how to spin yarn on it.
She’s also selling a wheel for a 12-year-old boy whose mom promised him he could buy one of the most expensive wheels on the market if he could sell his.
“Frankly I think he deserves it looking at the quality of spinning he could do,” Cooper said.
Cooper said the festival has been successful since she’s seen a lot of interest and sold some wheels.
“I was leery of the outdoors but that fact that people have been able to get out and enjoy a nice day, I’m pretty happy and I’d come back (for another festival),” Cooper said.
