Kitchen utensils and other items for sale during last year’s Franklin Spring Vintage & Handmade Festival held in downtown Franklin. This year’s event will feature more than 100 vendors in two different locations, food trucks, live music and more from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
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For more than a decade, downtown Franklin has established itself as a treasure trove of vintage and antique finds.
Shoppers can find everything from kitschy home decor to elegant pieces of furniture and everything in between.
And this weekend, those businesses are joining forces with more than 100 other regional vendors to supercharge the shopping experience.
“It’s so rewarding to see sometimes thousands of people coming to Franklin — some that have been here, some that are new and they didn’t realize all that the town had to offer,” said Jennifer Shireman, owner of Vintage Whimsy in downtown Franklin.
The Franklin Spring Vintage & Handmade Festival takes over downtown on Saturday. Vendors set up in two distinct areas in the city, one set up at the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater at Youngs Creek Park, the other in the city parking lot on Jefferson Street near Branigin Boulevard.
Live music will be playing at both places, while food trucks help people keep their strength up as they visit shops and 100-plus vendors.
“It’s really great for Franklin because it encourages people to walk downtown. Especially if it’s a nice day, it’s a quick walk and it gets people to experience our downtown a little bit,” Shireman said. “It’s always a great day for our stores, too.”
The event not only offers shoppers a chance to spend a spring day digging into a wealth of unique goods, but also an opportunity to show off Franklin’s charm.
“It’s become a big part of, not only antique and vintage shoppers, but of our downtown economy,” said Danny Causey, executive director of Discover Downtown Franklin. “It brings a lot of people from out of town, it brings a lot of money to our restaurants. People get to come to Franklin to see how beautiful our city is, and see that we have a lot of other specialty stores.”
The Vintage & Handmade Festival has become a twice-a-year tradition in downtown Franklin, with events held in the spring and again in the fall.
“Franklin is a destination for vintage and antique shoppers, and it’s also a destination for festivals,” Causey said. “A lot of the vintage stores got together and thought, we need to have a festival to bring in vintage vendors. There were already a lot of craft sales, and some shops were doing events themselves, but we pooled resources together.
Spearheaded now by Shireman and Julie Stewart, owner of Salvage Sisters, the idea behind the event is to celebrate the special community of vintage vendors, and their customers.
“Vintage store owners wanted to draw more people to Franklin. We wanted to tie into the things people love about our stores already, and bring even more of that downtown by encouraging these vendors to set up during the event,” Shireman said.
Last year, organizers added “handmade” to the name of the festival as a way to emphasize another artisan aspect of their business.
“Every vendor needs to have either handmade or vintage. They’re really careful to not have a bunch of things you could buy online. They want to make it a high-quality show,” Causey said.
Food trucks are scheduled to be set up at both festival locations, and live music is planned the two areas as well. On the east end of the festival, in the city parking lot on Jefferson Street, Breanna Faith will be performing pop country and rock, while Jennifer Mlott is set to play pop country hits as well as her own originals.
At the amphitheater, The Regulators perform first, followed by Emma Richards, a talented vocalist and current student at Butler University.
The different elements come together to create a celebratory block party.
But at the same time, the event comes back around to support other activities in downtown Franklin. Proceeds from the event go to the Downtown Business Fund, which Discover Downtown Franklin uses to help with costs of events throughout the year. Funds may go towards logistics such as portable toilets, marketing and more, Causey said.
“It keeps barrier to entry for all of these small businesses very low,” he said. “Typically, to take part in these other events, they don’t have to pay very much at all. So it’s a big deal for the local economy.”
IF YOU GO
Franklin Spring Vintage & Handmade Festival
What: A unique event spotlighting Franklin vintage shops, as well as 100-plus vendors, live music, food trucks and other great downtown shopping. The event will be held rain or shine.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Vendors, music and food will be set up in two different areas — the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater at Youngs Creek Park, 161 W. Monroe St., Franklin, and at the city parking lot on Jefferson Street just west of Branigin Boulevard.
