Sugarloaf Craft Festival is one of the biggest handcrafted art festivals in America and holds 11 shows annually in 5 locations in the mid-Atlantic area! Showcasing hundreds of talented artists, Sugarloaf offers all kinds of handmade crafts including sculptures, clothing, jewelry, clocks, and even treats!
This year’s Fall festival in Oaks, PA ran from November 8-10 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and featured over 350 artisans. Be sure to check out the full photo gallery online as well as the video recap at the end of this article!
The various crafts at a Sugarloaf Craft Festival can be categorized (for starters) as: Fine Arts, Clothing, Sculptures & Collectibles, Photography, Wood, Jewelry, and even Specialty Food. And in fact, most Specialty Food vendors were offering samples to give you a little taste of what they’re offering! I was able to try (and buy) from Keystone Farms Cheese, Bang Cookies, and Todd’s DIRT Seasonings. Everything was so tasty! And there was so much more food to choose from:
Each vendor’s booth is properly labeled with their home state, which is really cool because some art is a true representation of where the artist is from! For example, Philly Word Art (from Pennsylvania) uses text to create visuals of Philadelphia landmarks.
But Sugarloaf is headquarters for all kinds of art! One of the most creative booths I saw was BLH Collection who repurposes vintage Post Office mailbox doors to make coin banks. The original PO Box combination is used to open these beautiful banks, and includes the year the door originated from, too!
Other signs you should be on the lookout for at Sugarloaf is the “new vendor” indicator which will tell you that this particular vendor is making their grand debut at the show! At this show in Oaks, Nature of Reaction was one of these debut artists:
Nature of Reaction mimics shipwreck artifacts and mechanisms with a worn aesthetic. Your own sunken treasures!
But on top of all of the amazing vendors & artists at Sugarloaf, you can also enjoy the live demos and classes running all weekend. There are kid friendly shows, glassblowing demonstrations, live music, calligraphy demonstrations, and even free painting classes!
And we can’t forget about the novelty gifts either!
As much fine art as there is at Sugarloaf, there’s also plenty of pop culture fun & gag gifts you can pick up for yourself or loved ones. Humorous Clocks was a hit with clocks as small as 8″x8″ with joke clocks that replace numbers with themed hours. For example, the Cop’s Clock has a different donut name every hour:
And it’s always great to see Jackie Stier’s Copper Creations with her selection of wall-mountable phrases/quotes, logos, and custom copper pieces. No one had anything like Jackie’s copper art at Sugarloaf!
With shows happening in the Spring & the Fall of every year, Sugarloaf Craft Festival is a great way to cover all your bases for gift giving whether it’s for a birthday, special occasion, or early holiday shopping! There are literally hundreds of options to choose from and everything is so unique & innovative that chances are you won’t find products like these anywhere else!
Be sure to check out more vendors in the photo gallery online and watch our video recap below. And for more on Sugarloaf Craft Festival, visit their website for upcoming dates and other information.
LesDudis 