Twist 2024; Part 1 – Shopping!
Today Please join me for another road trip, this time we will be heading East into Quebec!!! let’s have a quick look at a map, to give you an idea of where we’re heading. (It’s 95km’s from my home in Ottawa).
1.1-1.2) Map showing the Drive from Ottawa to Complexe Whissell, 530 Rue Charles Auguste Montreuil, Saint-André-Avellin, view showing Complex Whissell where Twist will occur.
Friday, August 9th 2024 finally arrived and yet again, it was raining, quite heavily…. Something about the remnants of a storm called Debby…. This is the first day of shopping for the Twist Fiber Festival it’s not too bad so far. Grab your raincoat and rubber boots, I have an audiobook ready (Wen Spencer’s “Harbinger”) and meet me in the driveway at about 8 am.
It’s about an hour and a bit east of Ottawa in Quebec but today Google Maps says it will, like, take at least 1 hour and 40 minutes. We will take Highway 50, enjoying the fabulous scenery, tall rock cuttings and usually at least 1 dead skunk. Until we reach the sign for the town that makes me think of pineapples, head north from that exit to Saint-André-Avellin. This year the drive was not as picturesque as it usually is, being somewhat obscured by waves of heavy rain…… it did decrease to drizzle for a bit so I got a glimpse of the Ottawa Valley with the river, then back to rain… traffic was slow and we all stayed on the road (no hydroplaning).
2) best parking spot ever!! and the heavy rain backed off to a heavy drizzle as I pulled into the parking spot!
The construction detours and weather contributed to arriving a bit later than I expected. There was another blast of rain so no one was out to direct parking, but I did find the last handicapped parking spot (right beside the back door!!) there was a drop in the rain intensity as I unloaded the demo display bag. The plan was shopping and photos Friday morning, then a demo for the Ottawa guild from 2-6 pm. I checked in about my pre-booked workshop on Sunday (I will show you that later) and found out where the guild would be demoing (an amazing spot). Unfortunately, no one was there from the morning team (Due to the bad weather reports), so I put the bag of felting I had brought for display options, back in the car and was ready for shopping.
3.1- 3.2 ) The first few people going into the arena shopping area. (Arena entrance with booths in the background with people walking in.)
The crowds were quite damp and a bit lighter in number, but those who made it seemed enthusiastic in their shopping. There are 3 areas for shopping; the tent outside (which I understand had a small river running through a few of the booths on Friday. I did not check it out until Sunday.) There was also the Arena and the gym for shopping and classrooms down the other side of the building for workshops that started on Wednesday and ran through to Sunday afternoon.
I had a short list of things I was looking for, and a few things I hoped I might find. If you want a full list of all the vendors, check out the Twist website with PDFs with vendor locations and names. https://festivaltwist.org/pages/program-and-site-maps
4.1) Sight maps of complex and vendors
I headed for the main arena first. It has the largest number of booths. there was a good variety of things to buy; Knitting yarn, sewing and quilting, spinning, weaving and occasionally bits of felting. then on to the Gym. It’s too wet to get to the tent outside so I will leave that till Sunday and hope the weather is better. Then it will be time to demo. We have a plan so let’s have a look around before it gets too busy.
( I know it’s a bit out of order but I am going to show you both Friday and Sunday shots then we can check out the demoing in the next post.)
5-5.91) Some of the booths in the Arena
6-6.3) Some of the booths in the Gym
7.1- ) Rare breeds tent
8) part of the Twist team about to get photographed (I snuck in behind their photographer, I had camera envy!! Look at that lens!!!!)
9.1- )Some of the Booths in the Tent
I hope you enjoyed poking around some of the booths at this year’s Twist Festival. It’s been a lot of walking and shopping so let’s take a rest before we go check out the demos. We can also check out what I found!
Next: Twist 2024; Part 2 – Demos!
later: Twist 2024; Part 3 – Workshop
8 thoughts on “Twist 2024; Part 1 – Shopping!”
Well worth the drive Jan!
The displays of goodies are mouthwateringly gorgeous – we would have been like headless chickens going through the door – where to go first?
As always – an interesting post, thank you.
Definitely mouthwatering. So much to see and so much to covet. The sparseness of punters is just what I like for a show like that. You can actually get to see what is in the booths, instead of just other people’s backs, and can spend time looking without being pushed out by others trying to get in.
All that lovely stuff and 2 more posts to come. You certainly know how to keep us looking for more, Jan. Roll on the next one.
Ann
What a wonderful tour! I love all your photos and I believe we have seen this festival before but it seems much larger than in year’s past. Is that true? I don’t remember there being an extra tent etc. Always nice to go with you to the festival as it is a bit far to drive for me 😉
I love reading all your adventures, you have so much fun.
Quite a trip with so much to see and be seduced by.
Like Ann before, I much prefer to be able to see what’s on offer rather than jostling or being jostled, so the rain would definitely have been my friend on this occasion.
Thanks for taking on this journey.
Serious envy going on here Jan. I love the idea of having wide aisles where you can actually breathe between visiting the stalls. And boy what stalls! love the bunny too. I could have done a lot of financial damage to my bank account with a visit!
Thank you for brightening up my day.
Helene x
I wish i didn’t work Saturdays. Oh well probably saved me lots of money.