The Renegade Craft Fair
The Renegade Craft Fair is a free-to-attend event showcasing the handmade work and wares of independent craftspeople, artists, and designers. Vendors appearing in the Fair come from an ‘indie-craft’ background or Do It Yourself (DIY) culture. The Renegade Craft Fair was founded in 2003, and held its first event in Wicker Park (Chicago park), IL. Today, Renegade Craft Fair events are held annually in five American cities; Chicago (IL), Brooklyn (NY), Los Angeles (CA), San Francisco (CA), and Austin (TX).
History & Concept
Beginning in 2003 in Chicago, IL, the first Renegade Craft Fair was held in Wicker Park (Chicago park). The event was co-initiated by jewelry and housewares designer Sue Daly (Timber!) and illustrator and fabric crafter Kathleen Habbley (SeamRipper) as an opportunity for emerging makers of affordable handmade goods to showcase and sell their work in person at a free-to-attend, public venue. The concept for The Renegade Craft Fair sparked for festival organizers upon their realization that no other art and craft festival in Chicago at the time adequately represented (in scope and scale) the creativity of the burgeoning indie-craft and DIY-ethic movements gaining momentum on various websites and online stores.
Contrary to traditional craft fairs, The Renegade Craft Fair features affordable and environmentally friendly items of all kinds: clothing, jewelry, artwork, screenprint poster art, artist prints & editions, small collectibles, zines, DIY craft-kits, paper-goods, fabric-goods, housewares, knits, plush items, ceramics, bath & body products, and more.
The Renegade Craft Fair grew in popularity as consumer interest in handmade goods has also increased – evidenced by the growing success of online sites like Etsy and SupermarketHQ, where many Renegade Craft Fair vendors keep online stores, and art, craft + design blogs.
Detailed History, Timeline + Locations
Chicago, IL
The first Renegade Craft Fair was held in September of 2003 in Chicago’s Wicker Park and featured 75 vendor booths. Each consecutive year saw an increase in attendance and vendor-booths alike, as well as media-attention in local publications like The Chicago Reader and Punk Planet. Businesses associated with DIY culture (ReadyMade Magazine, Venus Zine, Craft (magazine)) also began taking an interest in the events, providing Sponsorship and promotional support.
In 2006, in addition to an annual summertime Fair, the first Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale was held at the Pulaski Park (Chicago) Fieldhouse.
In July of 2007, Daly and Habbley opened a brick and mortar storefront, Renegade Handmade, on Division Street in the Wicker Park, Chicago neighborhood, featuring the handmade work of several of the craftspeople appearing in the Fair.
In September of 2007, The Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago began to occur along Division St. on an expanse of the road just outside the Renegade Handmade storefront. Also in 2007, Habbley left the Renegade Craft Fair & Renegade Handmade companies.
The Chicago summertime event continues to occur along Division St. and in 2009 featured over 300 vendor booths.
Brooklyn, NY
The first Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, NY, occurred in June of 2005 along the softball-field area of McCarren Park and featured over 125 vendor booths. In 2007, the Fair moved to occur in the McCarren Park Pool, which by that time had began to be used by a number of organizations as a free-to-attend event space.
In December of 2009, construction began on the total renovation of the Pool. That same year, The Renegade Craft Fair once again moved locations into the Park. The 2009 Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair featured an expanded line-up of over 250 vendor booths and occurred around the track & field area, stretching across N. Driggs Avenue and around the eastside of the softball-field towards the corner of N. 12th Street and Bedford Avenue. The Fair will continue to be held in this same area of the park in 2010.
San Francisco, CA
The Renegade Craft Fair made its first West Coast trip to San Francisco in July of 2008, holding their first ever event at the historic Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion. In 2009, in addition to their second summertime Fair there, the first Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in San Francisco was held at smaller-in-size Herbst Pavilion of the Fort Mason Center.
In 2010, the summertime Fair will return to the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion, while the wintertime Holiday Sale will move locations to occur at the Concourse Exhibition Center.
Los Angeles, CA
In 2009, The Renegade Craft Fair added Los Angeles to their summer schedule, holding the event in July on the 13th floor of the California Market Center in the Fashion District, Los Angeles, California.
Returning in 2010, The Renegade Craft Fair will hold their second Los Angeles event in a different venue that better suits the free-to-attend, independent nature of the event: outdoors at Los Angeles State Historic Park.
Austin, TX
The first Renegade Craft Fair in Austin will occur in May of 2010 at the Palmer Events Center.
The Renegade Owl
The owl has been the mascot for The Renegade Craft Fair since its inception, inspired by a vintage, burlap tapestry Daly had purchased from a thrift store shortly before working on the first Fair in 2003. Daly approached her now husband, artist Mat Daly (the two were married in 2007), to produce a limited-edition silkscreen poster for the first event and the tradition has stuck ever since, with Mat producing one unique design for a limited-edition poster on the occasion of each Renegade Craft Fair.
An illustrated, cartoon owl drawn by Habbley in 2007 became the official logo for the storefront Renegade Handmade and appears frequently on Renegade Craft Fair merchandise and marketing materials.