Fair Bulletin - TENTPOLES August 7, 2026

Friday August 7th

Daily Fair updates will be emailed to all participants and juried members AND posted on our website on the page linked below. They are often posted before this email is sent, so bookmark the page and check back regularly!

nhcrafts.org/Fair-Updates

Emergency Contacts

Event Manager Karina Jonas: 603-496-5239

Executive Director Kate Saunders: 603-520-6000

First Aid station is located beside the Fair Office, at the corner of Spruce Lodge.

Craftsmen's Coffee Lounge is located in the Competition Center building, to the right of the Exhibition Tent. Please clean up after yourself there, and remember that we have many people to serve, so please do not fill up a thermos. Open Daily 9-2pm.Thank you for your understanding.

If you have any issues with wifi, please bring it to the attention of the Fair Office so that we may have our onsite tech support visit you.

As we head into the final stretch of the 93rd Annual Craftsmen's Fair, I want to thank you for being part of this incredible community. Thanks to your enthusiasm and support, as of Wednesday we have officially sold nearly 12,000 tickets as of end of day Wednesday. While attendance is currently running about 5–7% behind projections due to the challenging weather earlier this week, we know these final three days can make all the difference.

Your partnership has never been more important. Every social media post, newsletter mention, photo, and conversation helps introduce new visitors to the Fair and to the remarkable work of our craftsmen. Please tag @leagueofnhcraftsmen, use the repost feature to share the content you enjoy most, and add your favorite posts to your stories. Together, we can amplify the excitement across New England.

This year, the League invested nearly $100,000 in advertising—including radio, magazines, television, news, video, digital marketing, and social media—to reach the right audiences and encourage attendance. Now, we're asking our greatest ambassadors—you—to help us finish strong by building even more community around the Fair.

One of my favorite traditions is hearing the horns sound each morning to officially open the Fair. I'd love to see yours! Send me a photo of your horn and share its story. Let's celebrate this tradition together and inspire even more unique, handcrafted horns in the years ahead. See some samples below!

Thank you for everything you do. Let's make these final three days our strongest yet!

Kate Saunders

Executive Director

From Micheal Updike:

I had been using a clay horn made by Shauna Brautigam, thinking that one day I would make a horn out of slate. I never did create a slate horn but this past year in an effort to be louder and blow longer than Alex Kalish who likes to get the last toot in, I purchased a brass hunting horn off of eBay. It has turned out to be a very expressive instrument indeed. It’s mournful sounds expresses the sad cry of a wounded elephant.

From Hethre Larivee:

This is my glass horn, it was made in 2008 by Petr Novotny, of Novy Bor, Czech Republic. He was a renown glassblower and founder of a glass factory and studio named Novotny Glass. Petr was a very successful glass blower in the bohemian style, a well known teacher, a father, grandfather and friend to many. He had a wacky sense of humor which often came through in his glass work. Honestly, he made this for me as a beer bong lol! Sadly, Petr died in 2024, and I thought it would be a very fitting tribute to sound his horn at the annual Craftsmens fair. His son Ondrej Novotny now runs the glass factory.

IMPORTANT FAIR CLOSING REMINDER

As we head into our final day, we want to share an important reminder about Sunday’s Fair closing and move-out procedures.

A full set of closing and move-out instructions will be shared tomorrow, Saturday, with all booth holders. In the meantime, please plan accordingly:

All booth holders must remain open through the close of the Fair at 5:00 PM on Sunday, August 9. Booth breakdown and removal may begin after 5:00 PM. All work must be completed that evening. No booth contents or displays may be left after Sunday.

We appreciate everyone's help in making the closing process safe, organized, and efficient for all of our makers and our Fair team.

We are excited to celebrate our 20 and 50 year booth holders!

Richard Foye (20); Jack Dokus (50); Julia Brandis (20); Nina Zotcavage (20) and Gigi Laberge (20).

We are grateful to all of our returning booth holders!

Booth Award Winners

109 Kristen Dettoni, 203 Rebecca Haas, 401 Lulu Fitchter, 522 Hethre Larivee and 714 Aaron Slater

We are so excited to share the top booth winners for the 92nd Annual Fair! We had a tie, so we decided to award five winners for the top booths. Award recipients will receive a $200 credit toward next year’s booth!

As a reminder, after surveying the League membership we have moved forward with our Simplified Three-Level Evaluation System:

5 – Significantly exceeds the standard
4 – Exceeds/Meets the standard
3 – Does not yet meet the standard

Each booth was evaluated by a team of three reviewers—including one juried member and two members of the event management team.

Evaluations focused on three key areas:

Overall aesthetic and design
Flow and accessibility for visitors
Cleanliness and tidiness of the booth

Booths receiving a “3” will have a follow-up conversation with a member of the event team. These conversations are meant to be supportive and constructive, with the goal of helping every artist present their work in the best possible way.

Congratulations again to our booth award recipients! We’re proud to celebrate excellence while continuing to support each other in creating the best experience possible for our visitors and our community.

Honorable Mention for Excellence for Booth Design & Presentation

Maggie Burnett: Booth 105

Nicholas Kekic: Booth 205

Emery Wenger: Booth 518

David Fall: Booth 540

Paul Haigh: Booth 625

Megan Chiango: Booth 635

Tara Santoro: Booth 710

Donna Pioli: Booth 725

A Special Shout-Out!

A heartfelt congratulations to Donlin Forman & Jaya Lord, and Sarah Koff for creating truly extraordinary demo-sales booth designs this year. Your creativity, craftsmanship, and commitment to presenting your work in such an engaging way have inspired all of us. Thank you for raising the bar and showing what's possible!

We would love to see more of these exceptional demonstration spaces along the Fair's main runway. If you've been thinking about a creative booth concept, an interactive demonstration, or a new way to showcase your craft, now is the time to start dreaming.

As we look ahead to the 94th Annual Craftsmen's Fair, we invite you to share your ideas and help us continue elevating the visitor experience. We'd especially love to see more demonstrations representing a broader range of media and craft categories so guests can experience the incredible diversity of craftsmanship across our League.

Have an idea? We'd love to hear it. Let's start planning together and make next year's Fair even more engaging, inspiring, and unforgettable.

Volunteer Assistance

On Saturday 8/8 we will be very light on tent volunteers. Please remember to turn in the Volunteer Request form found in your booth packet if you know that you will need support. We do our best to prioritize these requests on the days when we do not have as many people available. Thank you to everyone for being supportive of their booth neighbors on days like this as well. You make the system work!

SAFETY NOTICE

Please do not put any broken glass into the trash bins. Sunapee staff has had shards sticking through the bags on more than one day, and staff changing out the bags just avoided being cut. We ask that any broken glass go into a box placed on top of a trash receptacle OR directly into the dumpster at the back of Spruce Lodge. Thank you!

FAIR WANT ADS

FOR SALE

Getting down to selling off more glass equipment (kilns, flat lap, tile saw), sheet glass (COE 90 fusible and dichroic), molds of all sizes, frit/powders and oh, so much more. Too much to list and you would probably want to see what is available in person. If interested, contact Deb Libby, (603) 724-8375 or sgiglass@comcast.net

Free square contactless reader and dock.

Still works fine . Just upgraded mine to next generation.

Stop by booth 526

Mary Ann Geis

For sale:

Fifty sheets of 8 ply acid-free rag matboard. White, but not a bright white, smooth finish. Purchased from Parson’s Paper Co. in Holyoke MA when they closed. Current retail price for 8 ply matboard is $50 per sheet. Will sell for $25 per sheet. In packages of ten, still wrapped. I can send a sample. Ann Eldridge 603-290-4878 cell/text. Booth #403 at the Fair.

Dan Dustin in booth 630 - He Is looking for those plastic thingies with the rings that you have to yank off the milk (etc) cartons the first time you open them. Drop these off at Booth #630 - thank you!