Arboleda Vintage & Handmade Crafts Festival

By Annie Vazquez11/9/2011

The Arboleda Vintage & Handmade Crafts Festival launches this Saturday in Miami’s Design District with over 60 local artists and vendors.

Attendees can shop everything from retro wares, pop art, steampunk, geekery, fashion and accessories.

Founders and Miami natives Grace M. Castro and Francine Madera created the event after visiting similar ones in Austin, Brooklyn, Chicago and LA.

”This type of outdoor festival which supports indie arts is big in other cities so we wanted to do something similar that supports our local community,” said Madera.

Most of the artists selling at Saturday’s festival are also vendors on Etsy.com, a website aimed at allowing independent business owners to sell their hand-made and one-of-kind goods.

“We are big fans of the Etsy and we wanted people to have the opportunity to see the items up close,” said Castro who also has a shop on Etsy called Collective Stash.

Some participants at the event are jeweler Reinvintage, T-shirt brand Aleloop, accessories designer The Cashmere Girl and houseware duo Mabel & Elodie.

Plus, the family friendly fest will have activities like do-it-yourself tutorial workstations for adults, craft activities for kids, live art performances, raffles, giveaways for the first 100 guests to arrive, food trucks, a Beck’s Beer Garden as well as live performances from local indie bands.