14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival

The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons was Craft Lake’s biggest offering yet, and what you saw partly depended on what day you came. - Photo: John Barkiple

Image: @clancycoop, Bianca Velasquez, Bonneville Jones, John Taylor

Festival Coverage

The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons was Craft Lake’s biggest offering yet, with over 350 local artisans, vintage vendors, foodies, youth entrepreneurs, performers and STEM exhibitors, all over the weekend of August 12–14. Those three days? Kind of a blur.

A lot sticks out, though, and what you saw partly depended on what day you came—Friday had Harmons’ VIP Lounge, offering great seats to excellent acts like, XDX, Detzany, Angie Petty and headliner Joshua James. All weekend, outdoor and indoor artisans took up the entirety of the southern half of the fair park. Attendees (and their dogs) browsed them all, including vintage vendors like MAEK Shift, who brought upcycled looks and retro patterns, artisans like SoyMurga, who offered handcrafted scents, sprays and self care goodies, and food vendors like Prime Corn who showed us the tasty meaning of “Pre-Hispanic Vegetarian Food.”

On Saturday, young entrepreneurs hawked their custom-made wares, such as Sydney’s Seaside Creations, selling handmade jewelry from sea shells. It was also Pacific Islander Heritage Month Day, and so we celebrated with artisans like Kalani Tonga, a hafekasi (biracial Tongan/Swedish) artist and published author from Midvale whose artwork takes traditional Polynesian patterns and employs them in unusual ways and with a non-traditional colors. Our Google Fiber STEM Building hosted a Sustainability Day, giving DIY Engineers like Fungal Focus a spotlight to show us how mushrooms are linked to the health of our planet.

By Sunday, many people had attended at least one of the DIY Workshops. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art offered attendees the chance to contribute to a mural, and the Utah Museum of Fine Art let us all help create a modular landscape drawing. We even hosted New City Movement’s Barn Burner Dance Party—cause hey, even a family event needs a DJ.

Next year’s DIY Fest (every year the second week in August) has big shoes to fill. 2022 was the most artisans Craft Lake City has ever hosted at a DIY Fest, so our expectations for next year—the 15th year of DIY Fest—are high. We’ll see you then, but enjoy our photo coverage of the event (we’ll be updating it as the week goes on!), and don’t miss us for Holiday Market later this winter!