Every item in the event is unique and must be one-of-a kind. You might see an artist selling beautiful blown glass sculpture next to someone who makes adorable, hand sewn dresses or an exhibitor who turns wood into a pepper mill on the same street. Fine art is mixed in with practical hand-crafted items. Participants are hand selected based on their originality, quality, and scope of work. Today the official name of the event is the “Mount Dora Spring Festival of Arts and Crafts” and selection is a quasi-juried process. I didn’t kick them out, but I didn’t allow new ones to participate and eventually they just dwindled away to none,” says Gamache. “Most of the original vendors were nearing retirement. The last few years of hard work weeding through the process has paid off. “Buy Sell” vendors were eventually charged a higher fee to discourage them from applying. The first thing Gamache did was to change the name to the “Spring Collectibles and Crafts show” to start the process of adding hand crafters to the event and get away from the word “Antique.” Next, she moved the few true antique dealers that remained to one area and started soliciting artists and hand crafters to set up and support the event. I wanted to get rid of the ‘Buy Sell’ vendors who appeared to be clearing out their garages and selling used Tupperware and rusty tools as ‘Collectibles’.” It was tough because, antiques and collectibles are by definition ‘Buy/Sell’ and some of the vendors had been there for more than 10 years.” Gamache says, “The first few years were a challenge to get the junk out of the event. The journey to achieve her vision didn’t happen overnight. It needed an overhaul and rebranding to raise the reputation and get attendance up.” People referred to it as the “Gems and Junk” show and it was riddled with vendors on blue tarps peddling what appeared to be typical garage sale items. Visit Mount Dora’s Event coordinator Janet Gamache says, “When I became the Event coordinator in 2013, I knew right away that the spring event needed a lot of work. Today the event is run by Visit Mount Dora, a not for profit group dedicated to “bringing feet on the street” and branding the town through events and marketing. The sole purpose of the event was to draw guests into the Mount Dora,FL business district from the Antique and Classic Boat show held on the shores of Lake Dora on the same weekend. Originally known as the “Mount Dora Antique show” the annual March event was created in the late 90’s by a handful of business owners.
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