Fun and Different One-Stop Valentine’s Day Shopping @ClevelandBazaar

 

Bazaar

Sat 2/13 @11AM-6PM

Valentine’s Day may be for lovers, but there are those folks who either aren’t in a relationship or despise the Madison Avenue version of the romantic holiday. Every kiss may begin with Kay but not every valentine wants a bouquet of flowers and a heart-shaped box of chocolates.

For those folks looking for more of a personalized Valentine’s Day gift, the DIY-friendly Cleveland Bazaar has the answer. Northeast Ohio’s longest-running independent craft show, which was founded by Shannon Okey, attracts innovative and unique artists from across the region to its annual Valentine Bazaar. This year’s affair takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat 2/13 at Cleveland’s Lake Affect Studios.

CoolCleveland talked to Okey about the upcoming Valentine Bazaar.

First of all, the Valentine Bazaar marks Cleveland Bazaar’s debut at Lake Affect Studios. Why does this mean going forward?

We are excited about it. It’s one of the newest venue spaces in Cleveland. It’s downtown in the Superior Arts District that has grown over the past several years. And it’s our first show in that beautiful space. We also have a series of once-a-month summer shows coming there. And so Lake Affect is our partner in all of that. It’ll be the second Saturday of the month for most of the summer. We have something coming up for the RNC that we can’t announce yet but we will be right in the thick of it downtown. There are a lot of things going on this summer. Also, it’s nice to be at an indoor venue for our summer events because most were outdoors and that limited the vendors. You can’t put out things that will melt in the sun. So we’ll have vendors we weren’t able to have at the outdoor event.

As far as the Valentine Bazaar is concerned, is it your typical heart-shaped affair?

Here’s the funny thing, I think a lot of Valentine’s Day-based events go for that sort of hippy-dippy love thing, and we have that. We’ve got presents for your significant other, nice lovely things, but we’ve also got people like Maniacal Medical coming in with preserved hearts in jars. We like to go for that darker side of things that maybe some other shows wouldn’t be comfortable with.

By hippy-dippy love, are you talking about patchouli-smelling folks selling love beads or homemade granola?

You know, floral everything, whatever. Everyone isn’t into that. I’m not into that. So I like that we go for a little darker side of things. We’ve got some things that you would not normally expect to see at a Valentine’s Day show.

Well, a heart in a jar would definitely be something out of the ordinary. We’re guessing you’re talking about like a joke gift?

No, it’s an actual heart. I’m not sure if he’s bringing the hearts for this show but things he is bringing are more along that vein and not the fluffy floral vein.

What if you’re in the market for candy and flowers?

We are going to have an onsite florist, and we are going to have a handful of chocolate makers who did really well at our previous shows. In fact, they sold out. You can get candy, you can get flowers, but you can also get things that are a little bit more off the beaten path. And we make a special effort to have things that are appropriate for men and children, because that’s often a tough sell. We have handmade robot toys and men’s watches and jewelry.

Finally, what is it about Cleveland Bazaar, and more specifically the notion of artisans presenting handmade wares, that continues to grow in popularity through Northeast Ohio?

It’s simple: We’re a city of makers. Cleveland is where things get made.

clevelandbazaar.org

Cleveland, OH 44114

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