It’s that time of year where outdoor lovers will find any excuse to be outside. Garrettsville is giving those people a reason to get outside by hosting its first annual Sip ‘n’ Shop on Main on July 27 beginning at noon.
“I feel like this would be something wonderful for Garrettsville and I have always wanted to decorate Garrettsville for Christmas and I felt that this would be a way to raise money to do that,” Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce member and founder of the Garrettsville Curtains Up Theatre Jackie Rinearson told The Weekly Villager on July 17.
According to Rinearson, all of the proceeds made from the one-day event will be earmarked by the GACC for a special beautification fund that will be made available to decorate the village.
It will be a day of shopping and leisure for all interested parties. The event will invite five wineries to attend and offer wine-tastings, with two of the wineries based in Portage County. In addition, 35 artisan vendors will also be in attendance to sell their crafts.
These types of events are familiar to Portage County with Mantua and Kent having their own annual vendor festivals and Rinearson said that it was time for Garrettsville to also have a one-day festival that mirrored the others.
“We are not unique in developing this but we are definitely trying to keep it just artists,” she added. “We are not allowing businesses that sell shower stalls or roofs or things like that. We want to keep it just artists.”
Rinearson said that upon arrival, each person will receive a wine glass and five tickets, with each one entitling them to sample a wine from a specific winery. Once they have used all five tickets, they are allowed to purchase five more tickets to continue sampling the wine. Each winery will have bottles available for purchase.
The wine tasting will serve as the appetizer but the primary focus of the event will be to highlight the variety of artisan vendors that are there to sell their products. Rinearson said the majority of these vendors are based in Portage County but she has also invited some from neighboring counties and outside the State of Ohio, including Pittsburgh.
Rinearson said that each artisan vendor brings passion for what they do and sought to make sure that each one created a unique product.
“If you look at some of these other large events, they also have a lot of crafters,” she added.” I don’t want to get 10 of the same woodcarvers or jewelers. It is unique in each person’s eyes in the art that they do but you also want to have a sampling of everything so you don’t want to just have the same thing.”
Some of the artisan vendors in attendance include woodworkers, glass blowers, and jewelers who specialize in creating origami-style jewelry.
Rinearson noted that due to the rural nature of Portage County, artisan crafts have become a huge staple of the community.
“There just seem to be a lot of crafters that are close by,” she said. “There are a lot of crafters when it comes to a lot of nature. People doing woodwork, people doing wreaths, knitting and stuff with wool, you get a lot of that when you get to farming and when you have your country areas, so I think that has something to do with it. It is a very calming and peaceful area but crafters are everywhere and they just gather where there is a unique event going on.”
The artisan vendors will not just include crafters but also vendors that have perfected their own personal craft such as chair massages or hair beading.
Rinearson said that the hope is for this event to become an annual tradition and can grow each year. She added that should this event become a summer tradition, then the funds collected will not just be used for Christmas decorations but other ways to improve the exterior of Garrettsville.
“The first year we might get lights on the buildings and next year we will add a Santa Claus and some wreathes; another year we may buy benches and more flower baskets,” she said. “If something wears down, we will get that replaced. It is very open as to what the funds can be used for.”
