POTSDAM — Buying and eating locally grown foods was the focus of the first Fall Island Fest this weekend. Despite an ominous gray sky, small groups of people filtered in and out all day Saturday, the first of the event's two days.
It was organized to showcase businesses on Fall Island, which is an area shoppers don't venture into as often as they do the other shops downtown, according to Brenda L. Thornton, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Booths lining the park offered vegetables grown by Hawkshaw Farm, Birdsfoot Farm and Kent Family Growers of DePeyster.
The Carriage House and the CORC Thrift Store were selling baked goods, and the Thousand Island Winery offered samples of its vintages.
"Right now there's a big focus on buying and eating local, so we thought we'd highlight (the farms), turning it into a mini farmers market," Ms. Thornton said.
Farms were not the only businesses that turned up. The Raquette River Gift Co., McDuff's Tavern, the Potsdam Public Museum, Jane W. Lammers's photography, and Chris Baran, a computer consultant, were set up under tents, displaying their wares.
There was face-painting, caricatures and a bouncy house for children. Several bands played as people browsed, including Animal Crackers, which kept the children dancing and parents laughing.
Some came for the music and stayed for the charm.
"My friend told me to come out and see her husband play sax, so we came over," Audrey P. Jacobson of Ogdensburg said. "It's such a dismal day and (the fair) is wonderful — it's not at all tacky."
"A local festival is always wonderful," she added.
The Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the event, scheduled it for the same weekend as St. Mary's Festival, a villagewide garage sale and a chicken barbecue at the Methodist Church, on purpose, despite some criticism from the community.
"We figured if we piggybacked off St. Mary's, (the Fall Island Fest) would be more of a draw," Ms. Thornton said.
She plans to make it an annual event, though maybe on a different weekend in early September.
"The students are just back so it gives them a chance to be introduced to the local market," Ms. Thorton said.
The Fall Island Festival will replace the chamber's former fall harvest dance, which never did very well. It was held for a few years, for the last time in 2007. More people came to the festival in its first hour than ever came to the dance, Ms. Thornton said, making it a success already.
"We feel like we're bringing people to the area and adding to the culture" with local farming, said Dulli Tengeler, an organic farmer with Birdsfoot Farm.