Mulberry Street festival bigger and better than ever

The Middle Georgia Art Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. And for the 47th year, the organization is hosting the Mulberry Street Arts and Crafts Festival. Coinciding with the Cherry Blossom Festival, the craft fair happens this weekend on Mulberry Street in downtown Macon.

“This is the 47th festival, but it coincides with our golden anniversary and we are really excited to make the festival bigger and better than ever,” said Rachel Gambill, president of the board of directors for the Middle Georgia Art Association. “It is one way to say thank you to everyone for the support through the years.”

As the oldest festival in Macon, the Mulberry Street Festival prides itself on only inviting vendors with the highest quality of handmade crafts.

“We have 185 vendors who are taking up more than 200 spaces,” Gambill said. “This has been an incredible year for us, filling up. There are a lot of new vendors with all kinds of art to display. We have paintings, pottery, stained glass, yard art and jewelry. Styles range from visual fine arts to crafts, to things for kids, to unique crafts and art styles from all over the world. Some of our more unusual items come out of crafts like woodworking and leatherworking. Each year, people come back for more items from their favorite vendors.”

Happening rain or shine, this family-friendly event is the chance to find unique items year to year.

“The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday,” Gambill said. “For more information about the festival, or about the Middle Georgia Art Association , we invite people to join our Facebook. We are pretty active and put all of our events there and answer questions.”

While food is not a part of the official festival, hungry shoppers need not fear.

“There are vendors who have food items for sale. But we’re also set up next to the Food Truck Frenzy, which is great for our vendors, visitors and us. We are expecting thousands of people to come and take advantage of the unique items and the fun shopping opportunity,” Gambill said.

The convenient location of Food Truck Frenzy allows shoppers to browse for a while, then step out for lunch or other Cherry Blossom Festival activities, then return to shopping. For more information about the Food Truck Frenzy, see page XX.

“We are really excited to be celebrating 50 years,” Gambrill said. “We appreciate the support of everyone who makes this festival possible and we hope everyone is ready to come out and shop!”

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Mulberry Street festival bigger and better than ever."