This year’s Cabin Fever Arts Festival will be held at the Southern State Community College Patriot Center in Hillsboro on Saturday, March 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the festival’s chairperson, Tracy Burske, told The Times-Gazette.
Admission is free.
The festival will feature around 70 vendors selling everything from jewelry to goat milk soaps to felted folk art.
There will be a food truck and food vendors as well as musical acts, including folk musician Steve Free.
“We had a record number of applications this year,” Burske said. “Unfortunately, we had to turn some away simply because of space.”
The Appalachian Artisans Guild, a group of Southern Ohio artisans who aim to promote and educate using their craft, organize the festival each year. The Cabin Fever Arts Festival is the guild’s biggest event, Burske said, and vendors’ booth fees and donations made during the event go into a scholarship fund.
“We give scholarships out in the spring to high school seniors who are going to an art school or pursuing a degree in an art-related field,” Burske said.
Past recipients have gone into fields like graphic arts and painting.
Burske said applications for the scholarship will be available at the festival.
The festival is also a way for artisans to share their work.
“We try to keep handmade goods and arts alive,” Burske said. “It’s a way for us to promote our craft, to show and promote a lost art. We’re there to support each other and to share.”
Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to browse and purchase one-of-a-kind, handcrafted items from local artisans. Burske said the artisans sometimes also offer advice to those who are just beginning to venture into a new craft.
“This is the first show after the Christmas season,” Burske said. “‘Cabin Fever’ is a good name for it because everybody’s ready to get out and see what some of these artisans have been working on during the winter break.”
Reach McKenzie Caldwell at 937-402-2570.
