Much to See at Annual Montrose Arts & Crafts Festival

By Alessandra LUCKEY, intern

People from near and far flocked to Montrose Saturday and Sunday to attend the 33rd Annual Montrose Arts & Crafts Festival.

The festival is the biggest outdoor event in Glendale all year, said Dale Dawson, one of the event coordinators.

This year there were over 300 vendors lining Honolulu Avenue. Most of these sellers were repeats, with only 40 merchants arriving as newcomers. Vendors were from California as well as Arizona, New Mexico and Florida.

The early planning stages for the Festival started in December when Dee Ovenden, one of the main planners, began reviewing the submitted vendor applications. She and a jury looked at the submissions and attached photos to decide who would get a booth at the festival, she said.

Visitors could buy goods that ranged from tie-dye shirts and jewelry to furniture and decorations. While they walked through the festival, shoppers could listen to live music and enjoy fresh food from vendors. Children also had the opportunity to ride horses, go into a petting zoo and play in bounce houses.

Carl Carrubba has been selling his tie-dye clothing for 20 years at the Montrose Arts & Crafts Festival. He said that he keeps coming back to Montrose to sell his clothing because the promoters are so nice and customers keep coming back to get their tie-dye fill.

“Families have been buying from us for generations,” Carrubba said. He then told a story about a 13-year-old girl who has been buying from them with her mother since she was 3-years-old.

Kathy Bellomo, a first-year vendor at this arts and crafts festival, loved her experience of selling her decorative signs to the customers.

“The people have been really nice, more friendly than any other show that I think I have done,” Bellomo said.

The festival is always the first weekend of June and is the only two-day festival hosted by the Montrose Shopping Park Assn. Dawson estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people attended the event.

Anyone who would like to be a vendor at the festival next year can go to shopmontrose.com to find an application.