Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival draws thousands to Honolulu Avenue

A half-mile stretch of Honolulu Avenue in Montrose was shut down to traffic over the weekend, but the street was still brimming with activity during the 32nd annual Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival.

More than 300 vendors took part in the two-day event, with booths lining both sides of the street from Verdugo Road to Las Palmas Avenue. The festival, which is put on by the Montrose Shopping Park Assn., is estimated to have drawn from 25,000 to upward of about 30,000 people, organizers said.

PHOTOS: Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival draws thousands

Festival-goers browsed and purchased a variety of items, from handmade fashions to ceramics to outdoor decorations. Also, food items such as beef jerky, olive oil, salsa and barbecue rub were available.

Nicole Hefferan, a Venice resident and La Cañada Flintridge native, came to the festival to support her mother — who was working at Country Daze, a vendor selling hand-painted, American-themed signs — as well as to check out what other vendors had to offer.

“Everything is handmade. It makes it so much more unique rather than just going to the store,” Hefferan said after buying some specialty olive oil from Leonardo e Roberto’s Gourmet Blends. “Most of the people here are locals, so it’s like giving back to the community.”

While the festival offered a selection of food and drink to go along with live music, it didn’t deter guests from stopping at several restaurants along Honolulu, especially those with outdoor dining areas.

Many businesses along the street also advertised special sales or set up shop on the sidewalk in front of their storefronts.

“Oh, [the festival] galvanizes us, all right. What it does is it brings in the largest two-day, foot-traffic crowd that we get all year, said Dale Dawson, business administrator for the shopping park association who helped coordinate the festival.

Dawson owns nearby Mountain Rose Gifts, and his wife and sister-in-law have another shop in Montrose, Revelation Tops.

He referred to the festival as a “friend-raising” event.

“It benefits the stores on the day of, but it benefits them long term, too, because [people] see things they’ve never seen and they come back,” Dawson said.

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Brian Park, brian.park@latimes.com

Twitter: @TheBrianPark