Over the bank holiday weekend it was the annual Saltaire Arts Trail. We could only make it along for the Monday, and despite the rain we were determined to see what was going on. There’s basically two main aspects of the weekend – the ‘arts trail’ and the ‘maker’s market’.
The former involves lots of open houses in the streets around Salts Mill where local artists and photographers have set up mini exhibitions for you to browse and purchase items you like. It’s brilliant being able to firstly see inside these iconic and historic mill worker’s terraces, and secondly seeing how artists display their work in such intimate settings and being able to chat to them about it. The open houses are marked out by festoons of red bunting outside, and we chose to take pot luck with the houses we visited instead of following the guidebook, which was really fun. For a list of some of the artists see here.
The latter is a large craft fair held in the village hall featuring local designers & crafters. This is really my cup of tea, being able to find unique handmade items to brighten up your home or to give as gifts. There were the usual suspects of cards, jewellery, cushions and bags but some more unusual pottery and leather items and handmade toys. I was really impressed by the variety and quality and we came away with a lovely haul of goodies including a fantastic giraffe cushion, a butterfly decoration (from Daisy Florence Design), a brooch and some cards. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to make it to the Swirlyarts stall (one of my favourite Folksy sellers) due to toddler tantrums, but you can’t win them all!
There were also some outdoor crafts to join in for the kids including painting, making dream catchers and helping to make some giant tipis out of fabric scraps which were really popular. The only grumble from the day was the lack of places to eat and drink. It was busy, but not as busy as I have seen Saltaire for previous festivals and the cafes were absolutely struggling to keep up with business today. It was very odd, but there were people queuing outside everywhere and staff telling you it was an hour wait to get a sandwich…. this didn’t seem to get any better even by 4pm when we were leaving. Disappointing as we didn’t even manage to get in anywhere for some tea and cake. Luckily some of the stalls were giving away free cupcakes!
Anyway, if this sounds like it’s up your street, make sure you put the date in your diary for next May. In the meantime there’s also the Saltaire Festival in September which is similar to look forward to.
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Saltaire Arts Trail Said:
on May 31, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Thank you for such a lovely article and glad you had such a good time! We will definitely take on board your comments about eateries (tea and cake being essential!) and hopefully we’ll be able to improve things next year. In the meantime we’ll be back for the Saltaire Festival in September, albeit with a much smaller presence (haven’t quite worked out what yet but likely to include the makers fair and some family activities). See you then.
Annabel Said:
on May 31, 2011 at 7:41 pm
I also really liked the Arts Trail work on the 3rd floor of Salt’s Mill, especially the screenprints by Joy Godfrey and the watercolours by Joanna Dunn