The annual Henderson Lions Arts and Crafts Festival is approaching quickly.
The festival that has been around for decades and is considered one of that largest arts and crafts festivals in the area will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5th and Sunday, Oct. 6th at Audubon State Park. The festival started as a fairly small event over 50-years ago and once attracted more than 20,000 people to the park.
Once again, the only cost to get into the festival is $5 to park your car and plenty of parking is available in the park.
Well over 100 vendors have signed up to attend this year’s festival. Some of the hand-crafted items you will see are wood crafts, quilts, glass art, jewelry, crochet items, handmade toys and dolls, painting and prints, candles, soaps, jams and jellies, honey, children’s clothing, baked gods, stained glass, wreaths, kitchen items, primitives and, of course, plenty of fall, Haloween and Christmas decorations. If you’re hungry you’ll find things like BBQ, walking tacos, burritos, chicken steaks, gourmet grilled cheese, Asian food, popcorn, kettle corn and lemonade shake-ups.
Close to 5,000 people attended the festival last year. This will be the ninth time the Henderson Lions have presented the festival, which has been around in some form since the mid-1970’s.
Money raised stays in Henderson and supports eye conservation, including eyeglasses and eye surgeries for those who cannot afford them, eye screening for children in grades 1,3,5,7 in
Henderson Schools, scholarships for local high school seniors and grants to local nonprofit organizations.
The festival started as the Big Rivers Arts and Crafts festival in the 1970’s, and later transitioned into the Green River Area Development District Arts and Crafts Festival before the Henderson Lions took over festival operations in 2015.