Every April brings warmth and re-growth back to Waterloo Region. To celebrate, each April 27 — right on Earth Day — Bloomin Earth takes over downtown Kitchener. The street sale brings the best artisans and community members into the core to show how vibrant it is. HG Watson spoke to Megan Goos about the evolution of Bloomin Earth
HG Watson
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
H.G. Watson: What was the inspiration for Bloomin Earth?
Megan Goos: It started about seven years ago when hand made wasn’t really a term I wanted to use to explain my things that I made because people still thought it was very popsicle stick looking craft kind of thing.
[Toronto is] where the big shows were and they were doing so well and used the word so freely. I was like ‘I don’t want to drive to Toronto every single time. We need to have something here in Kitchener.’
I grew up when Kitchener was busy. It was always people downtown. The stores were filled and there were sidewalk sales everyday…downtown Kitchener is not like that anymore. I wanted to try and build it back up again by having festivals and bringing people downtown showing them what was available in their community.
HG: What did the intial Bloomin Earth look like?
MG: Originally it started off as 20 artists. We were inside city hall and we all had our tables set up and none of us knew anything about presenting our art for a show, so we kind of all learned together. As the years moved on, we got some Toronto artists in and we kind of learned from them.
Now its grown to about 50 artists that are from here in the K-W area. When I first started the show nobody would say that they made stuff, so you never really knew when you met someone. It’s nice to see that they’re proud of it now. [They say] ‘yes I make things and yes I have my own business.’ So we’ve — I like to say we’ve — come a really long way.
HG: What can you expect when you go to the market?
MG: [One vendor] takes wine bottles and beer bottles and things like that and she uses them to make her stained glass art. She also makes coasters and cuts the end of the bottles off to make drinking glasses out of them. Everything she uses is recycled product.
Another girl makes all her gift cards, stationary, bows — all that stuff you would need for say a birthday — and makes it out of scrap pieces of paper. We also have a woman who makes jewelry out of butterfly wings; real wings that she encases in glass.
HG: There are activities as well, aren’t there?
MG: Because we want to show people what downtown has to offer as well, the belly dancing crew is from is coming called Faith Dance. [The instructor] teaches at one of the studios downtown. They’re a Bollywood dance troupe.
HG: What will next years event look like?
MG: I want to take over more of the street. This year it’s looking like we’ll have about a block…I want it to be big like the Blues Festival. Tons of people are excited about Earth Day, the environment and shopping handmade.
