Claremont Village Venture Art & Crafts Faire

Extensive, 200+ vendors, tent city in the middle of Claremont Village on certain Saturdays. Roads are blocked off and parking is at a premium. Great for people watching and loads of fun vendors from sea sponges, dog adoption, live owls, craft beer, whiskey, and art. Lots of fun.

It doesn’t feel like Halloween if we don’t make it down to the Village Venture. My grandmother would bring me here every year and I’ve just grown to love it. So many vendors and so many neat things! Halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas stuff too! I bought some really neat things here! We have Picasso replicas throughout my mom’s house and we found the switch covers with the paintings to match. How funny is that?! You can find the funniest of things! This year I am hunting down the Tim Burton-​esqe dolls! I’ll post a pic if I find her. Definitely worth the drive and parking! Claremont Village is awesome all year-​round. But when Village Venture comes around its even more awesome!

Best place to buy xmas gifts with excellent prices plus great home décor items. Outdoor shopping heaven with great deals but one day only. I now see why people are bused from other areas to Claremont for this one day annual event. Lots if great stuff, low cost. Safe, casual environment near claremont colleges, tree lined streets but walking to coffee shops, great dining options and other shops!

This is a great little street fair that they put on in the Claremont Village every year in October. The streets are closed down and filled with rows of arts & crafts booths. There are all kinds of things to look at such as jewelry, clothing, pottery, and other crafty things. There is also an area with food booths with plenty of different types of food to choose from as well as cookies, candy, ice cream, and other sweet treats. Parking can be an issue but they run free shuttles from different locations around town and drop you off at the MetroLink station. We took the shuttle from Cahuilla Park and it was super easy. There were several shuttles and we did not have to wait too long to catch one there and back. It does get a little crowded but we did not have much trouble getting through the different streets to look at all of the booths. I had not been to Village Venture since I was a teenager and I was glad that I took the day to visit. It was a lot of fun. I hope to be back again next year!

This event has been going on for over 30 years, and its held the 4^th Saturday in October, and starts at 9:00 am. This was my 3^rd year, and the event gets more crowded every year I attend.
My friend likes to get there early (8:30 am) and park in the Metrolink/​train area, but in the surrounding area there’s parking lots with free shuttles, which drops you off at the Metro area.
This festival has everything from arts and craft, religious stuff, holistic items, jewelry, kids clothes, and even banking needs. There’s even a Halloween parade for the kids and pets (yes, this event is very pet friendly).
The most popular booth seems to be Bungalow360, which is an accessory store that sells handbags, totes, wallets, with animal designs (ie: walrus, otters, flamingos, dogs, owls) and a portion of the sales goes back to an animal charity. The tent is so crowded and chaotic because almost every item is $ 10 (or less).
The event is held outdoors and only a few streets have really good shade. My friend and i slowly peruse each street (there’s about 3 blocks worth of vendors) and it takes us about 4 hours to attend this event, with a ½ hour take out for lunch.
Every year in the food section I see a huge line for Rosa’s Tacos. This year I stood in line (for 20 minutes) and found out that Rosa’s is only available at this event. The namesake (Rosa) passed away, but her family still runs the booth, and it truly was a family event. The tacos were quite simple: ground beef and potatoes assembled in a tortilla, held together with toothpicks, then deep fried. After cooked, its stuffed with lettuce and cheese, topped with mild or hot pico de gallo. I thought it would be an orgasmic taco (since the line was a mile long!) but it was just ok, and cheap eats at $ 2.50 a taco, and $ 1 for a soda.
There was a new vendor (JWP Pottery) that really caught my eye. It was hand thown pottery and her pottery wasn’t just the traditional bowls or platters (although she did have that) but also uniquely shaped items that were freeformed. The prices were quite reasonable, and they were breathtakingly beautiful. I wish I had room in my home to display these works of art. I do regret not buying a piece, and hope she’ll be there next year.
Next year I think Rebecca and I will to get there by 8:30 again.

I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d «be back next year.» Here it is, one year later, and being a person of my word, I kept it. This «Village Venture Art & Crafts Faire» always falls on the last Saturday of October. Always. Last year, it was 92 ridiculous degrees, but thank goodness, it was a few degrees cooler this year (84 today), as it made it much more desirable to walk the streets and linger among the many fine artisan booths. Very cool stuff, although this year, I didn’t buy anything. The crafts seemed to be more expensive this year, but then, it might’ve just been what I was looking at. Doesn’t matter, though. I had a great time, and I really enjoyed looking at all the amazing art, jewelry, clothing, home décor, etc. etc. Lovely things and sooooo much color. I LOVE LOVE LOVE things with color ! Check out my photos !
It’s actually quite wonderful for children, too. They have a costume contest, lots of things for kids to do and look at. Even pets are welcome. Can’t tell you how many dogs we saw walking with their families.
This is a really nice event for the entire family, and the town of Claremont is so peaceful, friendly, and quaint. I just love it there. I so wish more places were like this in Southern Calif.

This is my favorite street fair! College towns always have the best artists and they’re all here at the Village Venture. I have been going to this for about 20 years and every year I miss attending a rose show to go to this. Love it. Parking is impossible. But there are many free shuttles to take you there. I always park at Cahuilla Park and take their shuttle. Easy peasy :-) If you like street fairs and handmade stuff, you’ll like this! This years is coming up on Sat Oct 25, 2014.

Took the dog and sister to this annual fall festival and had a great time. Local bagel shop and Some Crust bakery were open early for breakfast then the costume parade and shopping. Met some friends and had lunch at Union on Yale. Altogether a fun time. Opened earlier than stated and parking was more crowded than usual.

My Third Time Going, This Year With My Son!!!
The Day Started Off Cool Then Got Terribly Hot. Oh Well SoCal Weather…
I Had My Son Ready For The Costume Parade And He Decided He Was More Interested In The Balloons Than The Parade. If I Had Known We Could Have Brought Our Dogs I Would Have, My Siberian And Lab Would Have Loved Interacting With The Other Kids, They’re People Dogs.
There Were A Lot Of Vendors There That Had A Lot Of Handcrafted Items. My Son Who Likes Music Liked Watching The People Playing Music.
My Son Enjoyed Getting Lollipops From The Vendors That Were There And He Became A Complete Sticky Mess!!! I’m Glad He Doesn’t Know What Tootsie Rolls Are Yet!!!
I Liked That Some Schools Had Booths There So I Could Do Some Research As To Where I’ll Be Sending My Son!!!
We Loved The Italian Ice Vendor That Was There, Too Bad He Doesn’t Have A Store Front, He Only Does Events!!!
I’m Only giving This Event 4 Stars Because It Needs To Be A Weekend Event. You Can’t Possibly See All The Vendors When You Have A 2-​Year Old In Tow. Also Some Of The Vendors Aren’t Local And I Would Have Liked To Buy And See Some More Of The Items They Were Selling.

First off, I almost made this so Michael W.‘s stealing my thunder.
As for this dumb review I’m making, I love going to the Claremont Village and I’m there on a weekly basis. With the Village Venture, this is when the Village gets even better. With hundreds of booths selling art, crafts, food, and whatever else, there are all kinds of stuff to find. And mind you, there are some legitimately great stuff for cheap too.
The only problem is that with all of the people there, it makes it difficult to go to the local places.