The Sawdust Winter Festival once again proved to be a family holiday tradition. Located where the Sawdust Festival is typically at; the event space transformed into a holiday art festival decked out with Christmas decor and of course Santa. Parking is scarce and fills up quick so make sure you get there early when this event cycles back around.
For the person who appreciates art, this would be the perfect holiday event for him/her. The main draw of the festival during the Winter season was really the Town Square. The Town Square of course features: Santa’s Throne, Santa’s Sleigh, Nutcrackers, Christmas Trees, and a Gingerbread House. You can be sure to bet that anyone with small children would be in this area. Which leaves the art lover plenty of clutter free aisles to peruse through. Also with live music, alcoholic beverages, food, espresso and Santa portraits; The Sawdust Winter Festival is sort of like the mall or shopping center but without the ridiculous line to get a photo with Santa. The festival provided a place to eat and drink, enjoy music, have photo-ops with props, and go Christmas shopping all within a confined space. With seemingly so much to offer, the festival grounds is quite a cozy place. It would take a forced effort to get lost there since you can easily follow the walls and basically circle back to where you started. We do recommend you to allocate at least 2 or 3 hours so you can get the chance to see everything. Though there is a large amount of vendors, the artwork that is offered for sale is as good as an attraction. Therefore, you may want to have enough time to browse so that you can appreciate every artist there.
The highlights of the night were: the Christmas props from last year and new vendors. Many appreciate fresh props and displays each year but then what is tradition after all without the classics? We like that they brought back the same props for photo-ops so that parents can see their children grow up in them. We also spotted a few new vendors. Either they are new or they re-branded and did a solid job at it. Especially the booth with the castle facade and the dragon on top. Like we said, there are non-stop things to see here and really; everything is either art or or attraction.
(Click on Image for Photo-Journal)
For more info, visit: https://sawdustartfestival.org/festivals/winter-fantasy/