Catch the first of three monthly Vintage Fests downtown this Sunday, September 21.
If you’ve loved the Vintage Fests organized by downtown vintage shop Gallery 304 in the past, great news: There’s a monthly series of three of them downtown this fall, starting this weekend.
“A lot of vendors and shoppers come up after each Vintage Fest and say, ‘I wish there were more opportunities,’ or, ‘I was out of town and missed the last one—when is the next one?’” says Nattie Hart, who heads up marketing for Gallery 304. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people about having them more frequently, so we decided to give it a try.”
Gallery 304 held the first Vintage Fest at Edith Barill Riverfront Park in Star City in August 2021, just as people were feeling really ready to step out of their COVID bubbles and be social again. It was a great success, and several events a year since then—in Star City, at Mylan Park, and once in the Hotel Morgan—have all been well-attended.
Although vendor applications for this fall’s events are still rolling in, Hart says you can expect 20 to 50 vendors at each event. Most vendors in past Fests have come from northern West Virginia and the surrounding states, but some have come from as far away as Illinois and Florida.
It’s a different mix of vintage finds each time. “We have a really good variety of different vendors,” Hart says. “A lot of vintage clothing, but also antique vendors and homewares. My original vision was not for it to be one-dimensional, but to have a place where people could find whatever they were looking for and, as time goes on, we’re getting a more diverse range of vendors.”
Shoppers at the upcoming events—September 21, October 19, and November 16, all Sundays—may find more than vendors with pre-loved goods. “We have some other little plans in store, too,” Hart says. “We’ll keep it as a surprise for now, but it should be a really fun time.”
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