How the Regional Zine/Craft Fair Came to Be

In October of 2008, Caitlin Holcombe, Ted Forsyth and KT Schwartz took a trip to Toronto, Ontario for Canzine. With self-published zines proudly gripped in their hands, they made their way through the crowded, bustling Gladstone Hotel to their assigned table upstairs. Tucked away in a corner, they quickly set up their booth and took turns meandering through the densely packed building.

They were impressed with the sheer volume of participants and guests.

They accumulated a pile of zines to take home with them, and at the end of the day, were glad to have been a part of the event.

Months later, Caitlin and Ted lamented the lack of a cohesive zine community in Rochester, and within upstate New York in general. While, they could both order and trade zines with relative ease through online distros (distributers who buy zines at wholesale prices and make them available through websites & print catalogues) they craved physical contact with their counterparts. At Canzine, they had been able to meet the authors of zines they loved and create more tangible connections. They knew that in cities like Portland, Toronto and Philadelphia there was a greater concentration of zine writers and readers and that these zinesters' enthusiasm for the medium fueled the organization of zine festivals and libraries.

Well, as Caitlin and Ted have learned, if you want something in your own city, you better do it yourself or it won't happen. KT had already started compiling a zine library, named after his abode, Rainbow Ranch Zine Library. He had received many gracious donations and subsidized additions through distributors (distros) online. With this bit of affirmation, that zinesters can be generous and creative people, Caitlin and Ted decided to host a Twenty Four Hour Zine Challenge to coincide with the international challenge that takes place throughout the month of July.

After copying and pasting their way to a poster for the event, they set up a basic wordpress page and facebook event and hoped that there would be willing participants. Luckily, James (the owner of The Mez) was willing to keep his café open all night for the event and with that they had secured a public venue. Despite confusion about what hours the Challenge would be, there were quite a few people who came out and made great strides with their zines. At least five people completed the challenge—most did not even need to stay up all night to do it either!

Following the enthusiasm of the Challenge, Caitlin and Ted set their sites on hosting a zine and craft fair at the new community space, The Flying Squirrel. The basic idea behind the fair was to encourage collaborations and connections between zinesters and craftsters in upstate NY. With that goal in mind, they set about generating interest and sending out registration forms for tables. The event was all-inclusive, meaning that tables were reserved for everyone who applied, until capacity was met.

With a poster designed by Dan Jircitano, the Regional Zine/Craft Fair was advertised all over Rochester. It certainly did not hurt that the event was mentioned in City newspaper too. Even with all this promotion, organizers were still stunned by the number of people who came out on February 7th.

The morning started out as a frenzy of last minute preparations were made to welcome participants. The Flying Squirrel hosted all manner of tablers: Ithaca's Silent City Distro, crocheters, sewers, a candle maker, wood whittler, glass blower, hula hoop maker and of course loads of zine writers and artists. The folks hosting tables arrived around 11:30, with wares being hefted up to the second floor of the space.

Only half an hour later, the first guests started arriving at noon to peruse the room full of dynamic creations. From the start of the day until the end at 4 PM, there was a constant stream of folks.

Throughout the day, there was an assortment of food and beverages made available for free, generously provided by Rochester Food Not Bombs. The bagel spread and lunch, as well as extra produce to take home, helped fuel everyone in the frenzy. Thank you to all who cooked and shared this food, which kept us going, from setting up tables at 10 AM to packing up after 4 PM.

Along with eighteen full tables of wares being sold, there was a knitting workshop led by Hannah Brown. Thank you to all who helped with this skill share—the full color tutorial worksheet looked great. At future Zine/Craft Fairs, hopefully there will be even more skill shares, and some readings.

After prompting from participants, it looks like the Regional Zine/Craft Fair will become a twice yearly (biannual) event. To organize and volunteer for the next Fair, please contact Caitlin at makeanotherchoice@gmail.com. And to lead skill shares now, please contact Rochester Free School with your class/workshop ideas: rochester-free-school@lists.rocus.org.