Community Spirit Thrives At Rice’s Old Creamery Arts Show

RICE (WJON News) -- What started out as a way to help local craft vendors has turned into a community and family tradition for the City of Rice. The Old Creamery Arts and Crafts Show was started by Mark Larson as a way to accommodate local crafters who had nowhere else to go when the Little Falls craft fair sold out. Now, 29 years later, it has turned into a city-wide event with organizations and businesses taking part.

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Nate and Sarah Larson have slowly been taking over running the show for the last 12 years. Sarah Larson says it is great to see the town come together for the event:

"I think it helps, I mean, I think it, obviously, it's more people visiting the town, more people visiting, using the gas station, you know, I think it helps everybody, just more exposure, and it's a fun kind of community event, you see people multiple times throughout the weekend, kind of coming back up and visiting, and shopping, so it's a fun event and I think everybody looks forward to it."

Larson says it is fun to see some of the same vendors come back year after year, and they are excited to see what year 30 will bring in 2026.

"We take it year by year (laughs) it's a lot of work and a lot of progress that happens in the off time so we really don't start planning next year until at least Sunday (laughs again) so we'll see, we'll see, I don't know, nothing big yet, we just try to get through every year as it goes and hope that we can have a successfull weekend and everybody enjoys themselves."

Larson says it's always fun to see the new designs from crafters every year and how the fair has slowly grown into the city-wide event it is today. The Old Creamery Craft Show takes place Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Rice.

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