2023 DATE: June 30 – July 1, 2023
This post documents my experience on July 7, 2012.
Being a festival blogger is not without its dangers.
Although it was a rather beautiful Saturday, local meteorologists were predicting it to be the hottest day of the year…
…and I pretty much agreed with them.
But with a bottle of water, I still headed south to the village of Loudonville…
…and braved the heat found at the Antique Festival.
Once I entered the festival grounds…
…it was hard to miss the car show going on.
At first, I followed the show cars past small groups of kids selling beverages…
…and then by a cluster of vendors…
…which did use antique machinery to make ice cream.
But as I continued to walk by over 500 cars…
…that took me by vendors selling car insurance and magazines…
…and led me all the way to downtown Loudonville…
…I began to wonder if this wasn’t a car festival instead.
Fortunately, I ended up finding a park more associated with the festival theme…
…where a handful of vendors sold items that included…
…bottles and plates…
…pans and books…
…and a rather intimidating piggy bank.
Then, as I made my way around…
…I found even more vendors tucked behind some buildings…
…selling kinder-looking pigs…
…the King among all the Precious Moments…
…and two guinea pigs…
…that made it clear that “antiques” was a term defined loosely.
(You can barter with vendors, by the way – so don’t be shy!)
Wherever there was space between the cars and the “antique” vendors…
…there was food to be eaten.
And if you didn’t feel like going to a food cart….
…the Lions but put on a chicken barbeque at one end of the festival grounds…
…while downtown restaurants fed festival goers at the other.
In fact, downtown Loudonville was pretty cool to explore….
…in order to plan future trips to the area…
…or simply to shop at the interesting stores (Creative Outlet).
There were also 50’s music to set the mood…
…more shopping opportunities advertised…
…and ways to cool off from the heat that included beer in air-conditioning…
…and a tent marked “REHAB” with industrial fans to dry off the sweat.
As I headed back to the car, I even noticed that some festival goers hung out at the stage….
…where the shade and Jaime Muilwyk‘s performance…
…made them feel “Safe and Sound” (Taylor Swift).