The Catskill Wool & Folk Festival is a festival for yarn and knitting fans. However after this year’s festival on October 20th, vendors and attendees alike left with a poor taste in their mouths from the poor communication and lack of safety precautions. It has even been dubbed “Fyberfest” by people who did not enjoy their time at the festival, a nickname in reference to the infamous and fraudulent Fyre luxury music festival from 2017.
The Wool & Folk Festival was founded three years ago by a group of yarn vendors as another version of the Sheep and Wool Festival, New York’s largest fiber festival. For the 2023 festival, the organizers of the festival posted on their social media in March that the festival wanted to hold it at Stone Ridge Orchard. After this announcement, vendors began paying for spaces at the festival for prices of $800 for returning vendors and $900 for first-timers.
Following this, on July 8th, tickets went on sale for $50. The people buying the tickets were not aware that the venue was not secured and that the organizers had not gotten the proper permits for the number of people coming in for the event. According to the town of Marbletown Planning board meeting, organizers were still attempting to get an allowance for these permits two months before the event. In this meeting’s minutes it explains that the orchard (who had not approved the event) could not safely hold 3,000 people, “but is agreeable to 2,000 people.”
To no one’s surprise, the Orchard venue fell through and on September 17th, it was announced on the festival’s Instagram account that the event would instead be held at Catskill’s Foreland. This was posted only six weeks before the event and left many planned attendees having to rethink their entire plan including refunds and already purchased hotel rooms. There were also worries about accessibility for people with disabilities due to the three-floor building the event was now being hosted in.
Megan Granger, a vendor at the event, said she was not informed of the change until a Zoom meeting and the vendors who could not make it to the call did not know until ten days before the event when they were told in an email from the event organizers. Information for parking was not posted until four days before the event after weeks of concerned festival goers asking.
The email to vendors said that they could unload in the parking lots adjacent to the building and mentioned how Main Street and Dutchman’s Landing were open for parking. They also specified that the teardown of booths would happen after the festival on Friday and Saturday mornings.
On Thursday evening, the first night of the festival, problems started right away when vendors arrived but could find no signs for parking or anywhere to load or check in. Many vendors were also instructed to set up outside instead of inside as they were promised. On Friday, the rain turned many outdoor vendors’ shops into muddy pits and many tents were flooded. All attendees ended up stuck in the rain.
The Wool & Folk Festival promised a handicap-accessible event but according to attendees, the venue was not accessible at all. Ramps, elevators, exits and restrooms were all closed off. Michelle Kats, an attendee of the festival who uses a wheelchair said, “The location was completely inaccessible in every possible way, from being on a hill to gravel and buildings with little accessibility, especially with the amount of people.”
An anonymous vendor told timeunion.com, “The show was very seriously, unsafely overcrowded. The local sheriff’s department was called for parking infractions caused by the disorder of the event. We were all promised we’d be indoors and that was a lie. We were all promised we’d have 10 by 10 booth spaces and that was a lie. We were promised access to electricity. We didn’t get it. We were promised meal vouchers and never got lunch. People were promised handicap parking and wheelchair-accessible shuttles- that was a lie.”
Many people on social media posted their displeasure with the event and the way it was conducted. The lack of pulling through with promises and unsafe practices make the idea of the event happening next year questionable.