The Kentucky Vintage Festival united individuals interested in vintage clothing, handmade goods and motorcycles on March 2 and 3.
The festival was held at Greyline Station, a location change from last year’s event at Rupp Arena.
Admission to the festival was free, with the offer of an “early bird special” of one-hour early admission each day for $10.
Live music was featured at the event as well as several food vendors.
“Today’s turnout has been incredible. I think we have 3,000 plus people that showed up,” Nick Nardiello, an organizer of the event and owner of Worn & Company, said. “The motorcycle shows brought in a bunch of different people. So far, I’ve heard from our vendors that everybody’s really happy.”
Nardiello said his favorite part of the event as an organizer was that everything worked out and that he has begun thinking about future plans for other events.
“Next time we won’t just do a vintage show, we’ll try and either it’d be motorcycles or art or more music, or maybe old cars or art students at UK it could be anything,” he said. “So we’ve kind of been playing with a lot of different ideas.”
Vendors and organizers alike were satisfied with the location of the festival, omitting the entrance fee and feeling as though it fits the event’s “style” more, according to Nardiello.
“I think a lot of people enjoy the live music, but just the overall like what’s available here,” Jared Wise, another organizer of the event, owner of Dayton Vintage Clothing and host of the Ohio Vintage Expo, said. “There’s just so much— food, restaurants, bars, it’s just way more than we’ve ever had.”
Scott Hatton, co-owner of Vintage Therapy alongside Aaron Wills, enjoyed the group of people the festival brought to his permanent store location at Greyline Station.
“I guess some people could say competition outside our front door. It’s a fantastic trade-off because there’s a huge amount of people that, whether they live in Lexington or they don’t, that have not heard of us before, so that’s been nice,” Hatton said.
The location of the festival this year was beneficial to Hatton, as all he had to do was open his store’s garage door to welcome people in.
“But in addition to that, we also get to always meet a lot of new people that have a big interest in vintage,” he said. “We get to make some new friends while we’re down here. And we also get to shop a whole bunch of really good curated vintage for ourselves as well.”
Hatton appreciated the uniqueness of the crowd of people at the festival, noting that not many other settings could bring together such a wide age range of people.
“So there’s a wide group of people down here, but with the clothing and knickknacks and art and decor, and small furniture, and music selection, you know, we touch a lot of different age groups and generations with what we’re compiling in here together,” he said.
University of Kentucky sophomores Annica Amoani and Emma Sears appreciated the prices of clothing at the festival.
“It’s been super cool, we’ve met a lot of really nice people, I got some really vintage, very nice, actually not that expensive stuff,” Amoani said. “So I feel like more people should show out. It’s been really nice.”
Amoani enjoyed meeting all of the vendors, saying they were all very helpful and kind.
You can find more information on the festival on Instagram @kyvintagefest.
