The 12th annual Certified Local Fall Festival will highlight over 100 local businesses this Saturday from in Margaret T. Hance Park.
The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is a free celebration of all things local to the state, presented by Local First Arizona.
The festival has moved from Portland Parkway to Hance Park and will have over 160 vendors, compared to last year’s 100+ vendors. Admission is free, and food tickets will be available for $1 each.
The festival will have food and dining, local beer and wine, a musical instrument petting zoo, a gymnastics obstacle course and activities for kids such as bubble soccer.
New to the event this year is the localist passport, which attendees will receive when they purchase a localist membership or t-shirt from Local First Arizona. If someone visits all 15 vendors on the passport and gets their card punched, they get entered to win tickets to an upcoming event put on by Local First.
Peanut Butter Americano is one of the vendors that will be on the localist passport. This will be Peanut Butter Americano’s first year at the festival.
“Attending Local Fall Fest says, ‘Hey, we are a local company, and we want you to be aware of that and feel good about spending money with us,’” Jeff Malkoon, founder of Peanut Butter Americano, said. “We want you to be excited about it and to feel good about what you’ve invested in. You’ve invested in the community.”
Barr said supporting the local community makes people feel more connected to a sense of place and keeps more dollars in Arizona.
According to the Local First website, for every $100 spent at local businesses, $43 remains in the local economy, but when $100 is spent at non-locally owned businesses, only $13 remains in the local economy.
“We recognize, I think more than other generations, that each dollar we spend is a vote for what we want to see in the world,” Malkoon said. “So we are paying more attention to who we give our money to. We want to give our money to groups, organizations, not just that we trust but actually that we believe in.”
Malkoon said consumers increasingly care about who they are investing in and where their products come from.
“This event is really important to come to because it is a great way to get to know the locally owned businesses in your community,” Barr said. “This is the place, the festival, that you can get that hands-on experience.”
Practical Art is a retail and gallery space that features 100 percent locally made usable art in anything from soap to furniture to kitchen utensils. Their artistic products, which are mostly made from recycled materials, will be at the Certified Local Fall Festival.
“I think the Local First does a really, really wonderful job of just getting the word out about local businesses and places that people can come and shop and support,” Lisa Olson, co-owner of Practical Art, said. “It’s just a really, really awesome event where you get a chance to talk to those businesses… [and] see what they all do.”
Local First is expecting this to be the largest festival they’ve had in its 12 year history.
“It’s going to be the biggest dang festival we’ve ever had before,” Thomas Barr, Local First’s director of member engagement and operations, said.
Contact the reporter at Nathaniel.Thrash@asu.edu.
