Little Falls Celebrates 53 Years Of Arts, Crafts, And Community Connection

LITTLE FALLS (WJON News) --  It's all hands on deck for a Central Minnesota town's annual event this weekend. The 53rd Annual Arts and Crafts Festival will see over 550 vendors line the streets of Little Falls. Over 100,000 people will visit the town of just over 9,000.

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Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce President Purva Watten says the entire community comes together for the festival, including some of the high school sports teams:

"We have our soccer boys going around, making sure the fair is a nice and clean environment for everyone because they're doing the trash across a ten-block radius because we literally take over the entire town."

She says the festival is an economic boost for everyone, including some businesses you might not expect:

"I've had fantastic comments from, like, realtors. They're selling houses and properties in town because people want to move to Little Falls because it's such an awesome place. They come, they check out the fair, and then they either want to consider moving here or working here. It's more than just the normal retail impact. It's so much broader than that. It impacts the community on a lot of different levels."

Watten says the festival is kind of like the city's Black Friday. The Little Falls Arts and Crafts Festival runs from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.