Local First Arizona held its eighth annual Certified Local Fall Festival on Saturday in a new location at downtown Phoenix’s Portland Parkway.
The previous location for the event was the Duck and Decanter parking lot on Camelback Road and 16th Street. This year featured the first downtown location for this “celebration of everything local,” said Erica Pederson, a coordinator for the festival.
The new location on Portland Street and Central Avenue is much larger and will accommodate the significant growth that the festival has experienced in the past several years, Pederson said.
“Last year (the Certified Local Fall Festival) was just so big,” Pederson said. “We had nearly 6,000 people and we’ve outgrown that area. We found this new Portland Park that’s perfect for us.”
Karen Mason from Duck and Decanter said that she was glad to see the festival move to a new location because it is a “huge step forward” for promoting local businesses.
The new location is twice as big and the number of vendors has increased from about 70 to 120, said Kimber Lanning, director of Local First Arizona. All of the businesses represented at the festival are locally owned and part of Local First Arizona, Pederson said.
More than 100 vendors attend the festival, according to Pederson.
“They are all members of Local First Arizona so they are all certified local businesses,” she said. “They will be selling their goods and we also have food samples from some of the valley’s best restaurants.”
Local First Arizona is a nonprofit organization that encourages the support of locally owned business. Pederson said the organization’s purpose is to help keep money within a local economy.
“When you keep your money local and purchase from local businesses, no matter what kind of business, more of you money will stay in the community and circulate throughout the economy,” Pederson said.
Food samples, a beer and wine garden and live music were among the attractions at the sidewalk festival. The festival was also meant to be family friendly, Pederson said.
“There also will be numerous kids’ activities throughout the festival, which will also be free,” Pederson said. “The Diamondbacks will be setting up a little batting cage. We’ll have a bounce house and also a rock-climbing wall as well.”
Despite being located in the heart of downtown Phoenix, parking was not an issue, Lanning said. Along with securing several parking lots for the festival, the park is also located near the Roosevelt Street light rail station, Pederson said.
“I think that being near the light rail it will be more accessible to a lot of people, and it’s also now right in downtown, and I think that will bring the growing downtown community as well,” Pederson said.
The location of the festival made it easy for some people driving by to spot. Eric Duty said that he was driving by the festival and decided to check it out. For Duty, buying locally is a great way to impact the community, he said.
“It’s important to keep the money here because it helps the community and supports the local economy,” Duty said.
Contact the reporter at mallory.price@asu.edu
