The Women’s Fair was a great success, said Deanna Deacon, one of the fair’s organizers and Canlan Ice Sport’s special events and planning coordinator.
“I mean really, I feel like every component of it was amazing - the food we had was great, the entertainment Friday night was amazing, we loved them,” said Deacon, mentioning that the Blissed Out YogaThon and the interactive discussion with a naturopathic doctor, Tamzin Morley, were also successful.
Deacon estimated around 350 to 400 community members came through which impressed the vendors.
“They really loved the community because a lot of them were from out of town and I think they got a little extra love from 100 Mile for being here,” she said.
The amount of people attending has gone up she said. According to her, the number on Friday night was doubled from last year’s event, adding that it was more of women grabbing their friends setting a date for it rather than stumbling upon it last minute.
She attributes the rise in numbers due to the fair being five year’s old now and gathering traction in the community who’s members are getting more excited about it every spring.
The only thing Deacon says might change for next year was aiming to bring in more variety of merchants.
“I think one of the good feedbacks that we got this year was that everyone enjoyed the nice variety of vendors. We had a good variety of awesome local vendors offering a lot of really amazing homemade handmade products and services but we also had people from Quesnel, Kamloops and Williams Lake and that just allowed there to be more variety for everyone,” she said. “So I think next year we will aim for even more of that.”
Deacon has been coordinating the fair for three years and said this one feels the most successful, fun, community focused and interactive so far. She also mentioned that a retailer who has been with the fair for five years concurred.
As coordinator, she has been in touch with all the sellers together months prior to the actual event, allowing them to create a little community amongst themselves.
The fair raised money through donations on behalf of the 100 Mile House and District’s Women Centre.
“We thought it was a really nice fit to then be able to give money back to the 100 Mile women’s centre. They offer some really amazing services and resources to women in this community and it’s just really beautiful to give some of that back,” she said.
She said that the fair will “absolutely” happen again next year and would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all the people who attended and the vendors.