San Joaquin Winery to host vendor fair

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Kirsten Hefner, owner of Krafts by_k shows off homemade items she sold during a vendor fair she hosted at All About Dance & Gymnastics last July. She is hosting another event Saturday at San Joaquin Winery.

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After receiving glowing reviews for her work organizing a vendor fair to All About Dance and Gymnastics, Kirsten Hefner was asked to do it again and she is organizing a bigger one at San Joaquin Winery.

San Joaquin Winery presents Central Valley Sip and Shop to be held Saturday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the winery (21801 Ave 16).

“I’m in charge of getting all the vendors. San Joaquin Winery is doing the hosting,” Hefner said.

Hefner runs Krafts by_k, which she makes Stackers (little bead bracelets) and hand-stamped dog tags.

“I have a lot of returning vendors and some new ones coming in from Fresno,” she said. “The vendors will have two-plus tables, which is good because they can bring more stuff.

Hefner had about 35 vendors in a somewhat confined space at All About Dance and Gymnastics in July. She is hoping, with the open air of San Joaquin Winery, to give vendors more of an opportunity to sell more of their products.

“We want to get the community together and support small businesses,” she said. “And to get people to our local winery and support them, as well. We do have indoor vendors, but I’m limiting how many vendors will be in there.”

In addition to many dessert vendors that will be in attendance, Hefner said that the Gastro Grill food truck will be serving food.

“It’s a wide assortment of vendors,” she said. “We have a lot of desserts like cake pops, spicy gummies, freeze-dried candies. We also have resin cups, candles, goat milks soap and apparel.”

There is no charge to attend and there will be a variety of vendors to support.

“There’s going to be wine specials,” Hefner said. “We will have a live deejay out there and a lot of dessert vendors.”

Although this Hefner is planning the event because of the success of her last event, she isn’t sure if this will become a regular thing.

“It’s been in the talks and vendors have asked me if this will be a regular thing,” she said. “It just depends on what I want to tackle. This is a lot of work. I live on my iPad collecting payments and organizing.”

Basically, Hefner wants the community to come out and support the small businesses.

“We want to get local support,” she said.