Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Vendors Like Event
Craft Season For Some Begins With Prairie Grove Clothesline Fair
PRAIRIE GROVE — The craft season for Sharon Gilbert of Dyer opens each year with the Clothesline Fair at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.
“This is my first one for the show season,” said Gilbert, whose booth is filled with hand-made primitive dolls and fall decorations. “I'm busy now through December. I look forward to it all year.
Gilbert has been coming to the Clothesline Fair for 29 years.
Bob Dale of Birch Tree, Mo., has brought his leather booth to the Clothesline Fair for 27 years. He personalizes leather belts, bracelets and other items for his customers.
Dale said the Clothesline Fair is one of his favorite craft shows each year.
“A lot of people at other places pick something out and move on,” Dale said. “These people visit with you, shake hands with you and tell you about their family. They are the friendliest people.”
Dale started out working 30 craft shows each year. This year, he is only going to 13 shows and next year, he said he plans to put up booths at probably 10 fairs.
It may be his last year in Prairie Grove, he said. He turns 77 years old in January and said he's telling people, “I need to retire and slow down.”
Vendors Larry and Pam Bufflng-
ton of Smithville, Okla., are new to craft fairs and this was their second time to come to the Clothesline Fair. They create decorative magnetic boards and returned to Prairie Grove because they were successful last year.
“We like the area and the people around here,” said Larry Buffington.
The Arts Center of the Ozarks organizes the annual craft fair at the Clothesline Fair and fair director Eve Smith said this year's event had about 180 booths with 130 vendors. Several vendors cancelled at the last moment because of uncertainty about tropical storm Isaac and its effects on the weather.
Isaac did not affect the fair and sunny, hot conditions prevailed at the Clothesline Fair throughout the weekend. The fair opened Saturday morning and concluded Monday night with the finals for the square dance competition.
In between, thousands of people enjoyed the activities.
Smith said the craft show, which is named the Ozark Arts and Crafts Exhibition, was successful. She changed the layout somewhat for some of the booths and said she probably would make a few changes next year to improve the flow of traffic to all the booths.
Holly Houser, historical park interpreter with the state park, said workers parked 3,750 cars on state property during the threeday event.
Houser said the park uses a formula to determine park attendance and this formula showed that 9,147 people attended the fair on Saturday and 6,500 people attended the square dancing Saturday night. For Sunday, more than 5,000 visitors came to the craft fair and on Monday, the craft fair attendance was just under 5,000 and the square dance attendance was 6,500.
Houser said she believes the hot weather affected attendance during the day Monday.
The Clothesline Fair provides a combination of entertainment for visitors. The Prairie Grove Lions Club sponsors the fair and is in charge of food concessions and square dancing. Many non-profit and school groups use concession stands as major fundraisers for their organizations each year. The concession stand for bags of kettle corn probably is the most popular and busiest stand throughout the weekend.
Other entertainment includes musical groups that perform in the park throughout the day. Some play the guitar, banjo and other instruments. In the afternoon, square dancing gets under way.
The younger children perform exhibition dances in the afternoon and the older groups compete for the coveted championship prize in the evenings. This year, more than 700 children, ranging in age from 3-17, participated in square dancing.