Shopping for gifts at arts festivals? Here are 5 vendors to see at People’s Choice

Although Christmas is still six months away, it’s never a bad idea to get a head start on finding your loved ones’ gifts, and this weekend’s art festivals have many vendors that can help you with those tough-to-buy-for family members.

The 31st annual People’s Choice Festival of Pennsylvania, which has been located at the Grange Park in Centre Hall for four years now, proudly calls itself central Pennsylvania’s “homegrown” festival, having maintained a focus on celebrating and promoting Pennsylvania-based artists since 1993.

Taking place every day from Thursday-Sunday, the festival runs alongside the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts and offers about 200 art vendors and two dozen food vendors to shop at, as well as 40 live musical acts.

While the vendors at the festival offer a wide variety of goods to choose from, sometimes it can be hard to narrow down that one specific gift for a picky family member — no worries though, the Centre Daily Times is here to help.

The CDT visited the festival on its opening day and found five stands with goods unique enough to please everyone on your list. Here are the ones we picked:

Astro Vinyl Arts for the music lover

In 1835, American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the famous phrase, “music is the universal language of humankind.” And Astro Vinyl Arts might be the universal crowd-pleaser for fans of almost any artist out there, regardless of the genre.

Based out of Pottstown, Astro Vinyl Arts is a family-run business that offers a massive selection of framed records, decorated by carving musical artist-themed designs into them.

Whether it be a Steve Miller Band-crazy aunt, a sister going through a Taylor Swift era, or a grandpa with fond memories of Frank Sinatra’s silky voice, this vendor has a vinyl for fans of almost any artist — and according to Koko, the company’s production and show supervisor, if they don’t have a specific artist, it can be custom ordered.

“I think that everyone I’ve ever met has a favorite artist, and that’s what makes us so cool — if you’ve got a favorite, we’ve got a vinyl of them, or we can make one,” Koko said.

Decorative vinyls start at $55 for a standard piece, and can rise up to $120 for a more-intricate pieces made with that artist’s specific vinyl record.

RanaeArt Hex Signs for the PA history-obsessed

While they might not be as easy to hang as a small, framed vinyl, RanaeArt’s hex signs make the perfect gift for lovers of Pennsylvania and Amish history, or of large, decorative art pieces in general.

RenaeArt, which also runs a T-shirt stand at the festival, is a Reading-based company that offers the signs in four different sizes, with each one hand-painted by Dave Borden.

“I honestly started making these during the pandemic — I didn’t have much else to do, and one of my wealthier buddies had a fun carving machine he let me use,” Borden said. “It’s takes a while to get them all painted up, but they sure look pretty when they’re done.”

The smallest hex signs offered at the festival start at $100 apiece, with the largest signs costing $400. A wider variety of signs can be found on RenaeArt’s website.

Jesamie Handwovens for the fashionista

Offering a wide variety of 100% cotton, hand-made apparel, Chambersburg-based vendor Jesamie Handwovens has gift ideas that could very likely satisfy the fashionistas in your life.

Each piece is made entirely by Pamela Bartl, a 40-year veteran of the cloth-making game who takes great pride in her ability to craft clothes that seamlessly combine fashion, comfort and functionality.

Some of the products on display at Bartl’s stand include a mobius strip-emulating and regular scarves, cardigans, jackets and Bartl’s signature capelets, which come complete with pockets in the front.

“Every single piece of clothing that you’re going to get from me here will be one-of-one, and that’s a guarantee,” Bartl said. “I use different yarn for each piece, so no two are the same.”

Prices for Bartl’s cloths start at $25, with the most expensive piece costing $240.

Blue Mountain Vineyards & Cellars for the wine aficionado

Based in New Tripoli, Blue Mountain Vineyards & Cellars is offering 11 different varieties of bottled wine at the festival that may just make the perfect gift any wine connoisseurs — or loved ones over 21 years old — in your family.

Bottles of both sweet and dry wine are offered, with prices ranging from as low as $14 to as high as $28 per bottle. The wines can be tasted before being bought, and glasses of wine are also available to be purchased and carried around the festival.

While Blue Mountain has competition from other wineries at the festival, Outside Sale Specialist Keely Lyons said Wednesday that there are a couple things that separate her company’s wine from the rest.

“Everything that needs done with the wine — growing the grapes, harvesting them, making the wine — it’s all done on site, and we’ve been doing it that way for 27 years,” Lyons said. “Aside from that though, we absolutely have the cutest mascot too.”

Lyons is referring to Reggie, the animated blue dog that appears on almost every bottle of Blue Mountain wine.

Jim’s Nature Craft for the person who has everything

Jim Richtscheit, the owner of Osceola Mills-based Jim’s Nature Craft, was taught how to whittle and carve wood from a young age by his pap. Since then, he’s turned that hobby into a career, and is making his People’s Choice debut this year with a wide assortment of hand-carved, wooden figurines and sculptures.

Specializing in eclectic animal figures, Richtscheit said Thursday that his pine wood figures aren’t marketed toward one type person or another — he wants them to be purchased and cherished by everyone, much like one of his earliest figures is being cherished right now.

“Early into this, I had made a figure for my mom that she really, really loved,” Richtscheit said. “That’s kind of what I want to see happen with these. I don’t think it really matters who you buy them for or why — if one reminds you of a childhood pet, or if you just think they’re cool-looking, I just want to see people enjoy them.”

Each of Richtscheit’s figures takes an average of “around four or five hours” to make, and can range in price anywhere from $6 to $300. A wider selection of his carvings can be found on his temporarily-closed Etsy page under a separate name.

Other info about People’s Choice

If one of the five highlighted vendors doesn’t satisfy your gift-giving needs, no need to worry, as the People’s Choice Festival has many other vendors that sell jewelry, pottery goods, different apparel items and more.

The festival will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m on Sunday.

More information about the festival is available at the its website.