Q: What is Pembina Valley Events all about and its main focus?
We are a diverse market of vendors, artisans and local businesses. We feel that brings out a diverse crowd in our community. Secondly, family is really important to us! That’s why we make sure to have free activities for the kids to enjoy and have free admission. Why? Truthfully we would much rather people pay money to shop with our vendors. We aren’t looking to make an income from these events for ourselves, we do them for our vendors and the community, that’s why we don’t charge admission fees or fees for kids activities. To us, this is about the community and for people to have a place to sell their wares, this isn’t a job for us, it’s our passion!
Q: What is your background and how did you start Pembina Valley Events?
I am both a vendor and an artisan. I sell Tupperware but I also am an artisan who makes vinyl handmade items. I enjoyed selling both vendor items and artisan items and my passion for them led me to start hosting events and it grew from there. I’m a wife and a mom of two kids so family events that had things for my kids to do at them that didn’t cost a lot of money is something really important to me.
Q: What’s the benefit for the community to have an event like this?
There are lots of craft and vendor sales out there, Manitoba is saturated with them if you look at the vendor pages. Our goal with our events is to really have something for everyone in the family. We also know money is tight so we offer free kids activities and free admission which we have been told has helped a lot of families have fun family outings who otherwise might not have been able too. We also keep our vendor fees minimal so that vendors from all different financial backgrounds can join us.
Q: Which type of vendor/product most succeed during the event?
I can’t say there is one that out succeeds everything, however, we aim to have a diverse group of vendors, artisans and local businesses to bring to the event, so there is something for everyone just depends what you are looking for.
Q: Is there enough support in the city for local artisans? How it should be improved?
There seems to be a lot of support for shopping local which is wonderful to see. Support is growing and I’m excited to see how it pans out in 2019. There is a lot of good organizers out there right now planning events so I’m excited to see the Pembina Valley area be recognized for that.
Q: What does it take for someone to become a vendor?
Email us at [email protected] with what you sell, photos you have and social media links.
Q: How do you see the future of the local artisans in the community?
Growing. Every year there is more and more and I’m excited to see where it goes for the Pembina Valley area.
Gina wraps up by saying…
For all the information on our events visit us on Facebook at Pembina Valley Events. Thank you to all of our vendors who have done events throughout the years and thank you to the Pembina Valley community for supporting our events. We are excited to see all of you heading into our Christmas market on November 16 & 17 at the Access Event Centre and we look forward to all the events we have planned in 2019.
