Each year, Deloraine – a town of fewer than 3000 people – swells as an influx of about 15,000 people arrive over the space of days.
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The Tasmanian Craft Fair is an annual not-for-profit event, run by Deloraine Rotary Club.
Entering his second year as the craft fair’s director, Tim Biggs said it had evolved from being a simple art and craft fair.
Now it was an event.
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With hot dog vans from Adelaide and local microbreweries, the fair attracted an array of different food and drink stalls.
“It’s an event for most people, not just those into craft,” Mr Biggs said.
“It’s really has transformed a sleep town into a vibrant one.”
“The craft fair has enabled us to improve Deloraine’s attractiveness to visitors,” Mr Biggs said.
It’s far for all it has helped to support in the 37 years since the fair started.
When the local hospital faced closure, funds from the fair were donated to help support it and it had become a “vibrant hospital”.
“It’s helped Deloraine maintain and grow when it’s been hard times for Australian towns of a similar size,” Mr Biggs said.
But it was not just financial support that helped to anchor the fair into the town.
It was a haven for many local artists to “get their first leg up with many going onto very successful careers”, he said.
More artists demonstrations would be on display this year to showcase not only their crafts, but how they create their work, Mr Biggs said.
Rotary also wanted exhibitors to have a fruitful event and for people to enjoy themselves, he said.
And the secret to the fair’s success?
“We’ve been able to change and evolve to meet people’s changing tastes,” Mr Biggs said.
Every two years, the director of the fair changed “enabling new ideas and an approach to enliven the event”.
Long term Deloraine resident Lester Jones has been in the area for the past 20 years.
“The fair had a very humble beginning with one venue at a local complex,” Mr Lester said.
Now it was held across town with multiple venues and thousands of additional people, he said.
But the camaraderie between stallholders had not been lost as the fair increased in size, Mr Lester said.
The fair had managed to not to become “stagnant” and continue to bring people back.
It helped 100 per cent of the funds raised went back into helping the community, whether that was the local, state, national or international community, he said.
Volunteers from Rotary as well as other service clubs and groups all joined together to make each fair better than the last one, Mr Lester said.