Contemporary Craft Festival 2016 is a huge success!
Written: 22 June 2016
The Contemporary Craft Festival 2016, which took place between the 10th and 12th June, has been hailed a huge success by the organisers.
The multi award-winning event welcomed almost 10,000 visitors to Bovey Tracey and showcased over 200 of the UKs finest makers, with many saying it had been their most successful craft fair ever.
Every year we award excellence in craft, our selectors gather once more and choose the very best from a huge selection of exceptional talent. This year’s winners were Adam Cornish, a wood turner from Bovey Tracey. Adam won madebyhandonline.com’s Best New Business Award. Zsuzsi Morrison, jeweller was awarded Great Western Railway award for Best Maker in the South West. Jane Crisp, wood worker was awarded The Tony Piper Memorial Award fro Craft Excellence by The Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Ceramic Artist, Jin Eui Kim was awarded the Christian Dodd award for Best Ceramics and Sue Pryke & Wood+Wild received the Best Stand Award.
This year’s festival saw the launch of ‘The Festival Pottery Showdown’, where visitors were able to go head to head and test their pottery skills against the finalists from the hit BBC TV series, The Great Pottery Throw Down.
The winner of the programme, Matthew Wilcock, and his fellow finalists - Tom, Sally-Jo and Jim were also exhibitors at the event.
Organiser Sarah James said: “The Contemporary Craft Festival 2016 was a great success. We welcomed close to 10,000 visitors and the weather shone through here and there! A little rain did not dampen the enthusiasm for craft, with shoppers out in force, and the Pottery Showdown gripped the attention of the audience over the three days and was a massive hit!
“The Craft Cinema was full for every performance and the audience enjoyed the beautifully composed films by RA Collaborations, which raised many a smile.
“The Children's Craft Tent was as popular as ever and beautiful music filled the air as thousands of visitors enjoyed tucking into locally produced artisan food. Sales of craft were verygood, with one particularly discerning stand holder claiming it was the best show commercially she had ever done, including shows in London. It was a joy from beginning to end and I’d say it was our best festival ever!”
Minister for Heritage, Tourism and Sport, David Evennett MP attended the event and said: “This event is not only one of the highlights of the craft calendar but also a fantastic draw for tourists. It has been a delight to meet the passionate craftsmen and women and see the wonderful array of talent and work on show.”
