Kathy Evans of North Aurora knew Saturday’s heat was something she’d have to deal with, but was hoping a visit to Riverfront Park in her hometown would help make things a little more bearable.
The fact there was an art show going on there didn’t hurt.
“It is hot and the breeze off the river is nice,” she said at the Creativity at the Crossroads event at the park. “I go to four or five events like this each year. Probably 75% of the time, I come home with something I like. I like home goods and jewelry.”
The village offered its second annual Creativity at the Crossroads event on Saturday which included more artists and diversity of craft options than last year, which organizers hoped would also translate into a bigger crowd.
The six-hour event included more than 60 artists – about a dozen more than a year ago – who were offering items including traditional paintings in oils and acrylics, wood carving, knit and crochet items, soaps, candles and more.
About 50% of those artists were back from a year ago, event organizers said.
“We’ve been unlucky in that, for the second year in a row, we’ve managed to schedule this on one of the hottest days of the year,” Natalie Stevens, North Aurora’s community relations coordinator, said with a laugh. “We have changed the layout as last year, we were just below the gazebo area but this year, we’ve spread out up all the way throughout the entire park.”
The village partnered with Messenger Public Library, which offered a summer program called “Color Your World” at the event which allowed kids to enjoy an art station that included designing a book cover as well as other arts and crafts.
Stevens said “there was good attendance last year” at the event.
“Whenever you do an event and you make it an annual thing you hope to grow it year after year,” she said. “Next year, we’re hoping to get some live musicians here which we were hoping to have this year, but there weren’t any small local groups that were available this weekend.”
Donna Werle of Aurora said she was a first-time visitor to the event on Saturday.
“I came here to check it out. I like the setting and I love this park,” Werle said. “For me, some of the go-to stuff is something unique. Sometimes I look for jewelry for my daughter and I do like unique prints. I usually buy something almost every time.”
Julia Grosch, also from Aurora, came with Werle and said she noticed that the booths were indeed more spread out this year.
“I see that they are here and along the river,” Grosch said. “We’re absolutely going to hit every one of them. I’ve been known to hit 200 booths at the big art fairs. I’m drawn to wood block prints, very specific. I’ll hit a dozen craft fairs a year. Iif there’s one on the weekend and it’s nearby, I’m there, absolutely.”
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David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.