So I thought Saturday was bad when it came to sticky weather – Sunday was even worse! This post is going to be a bit of a moan and groan!
Our plans were to head to the Renegade Craft Fair and then travel out to Queens to stop by my-super-top-secret sausage mince supplier in Sunnyside.
Getting on the train to go to the fair was a welcome relief. I could have happily lived on the train for 24 hours – I love the chill in the subway cars and the drivers of the G train always have the cool factor amped up to full it seems.
We had to walk along Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg to get to the McCarren Park. Here are some sights along the way –
Wedding attire from here perhaps? 😉
The park was a dustbowl for the fair. The wind was blustery and hot and the dust from the softball fields was blowing everywhere. We were sweaty and dirty within ten minutes of getting there but normally at a market, the goods make you forget stuff like that. Not this place though. They had all of the stalls in a circle around the soccer field and running track. Strange indeed. There are a zillion better places in the city for a fair like this than this park. The layout just didn’t make sense.
The thing is the Renegade Craft Fair is actually named wrong. I didn’t think there was anything remotely crafty there at all. It was more like an excuse for $30 a piece hipster gear that resembled more of a college poster and t-shirt fair than craft. A lot of it was stuff you see at other markets. The stalls were like little tents – which meant if there were 3 or 4 people looking at a table, you could not get close. Nearly everything we saw was overpriced. Also – I am not the only one who thinks this, reading online reviews many people are saying the same thing. To me, the fair was trying too hard to be hip than actually showing decent crafting. In a nutshell, the organizers would do well to take a look at how the Melbourne Upmarkets do their thing and take note.
It was nice to see some practical stuff going on –
The highlight was the Hungry March Band walking around the stalls.
We did a full lap and then we caught up with Katie, Camille, Michael and Co as it was Katie’s Awesome Birthday Weekend Celebration. We did another lap and headed back for the G train as we could feel some kind of storm was going to hit!
Going to Sunnyside and back in the heat was oppressive but it was nice seeing my old neighbourhood… by the time we got home it was time for a nap. When I woke up I was surprised to find that a Melbourne-style cool change had swept across New York. There was a chill in the air and the relief from the humidity was instant. To say I slept well that night would be an understatement!