(bright music) - The 18th annual Craft Lake City DIY Fest will kick off at Utah State Fair Park.

This is Utah's largest local centric festival for art, music, science, and technology.

Andy Fletcher is here to share how this event celebrates all things handmade in Utah.

Welcome, Andy.

- Hi, thanks for having me.

- So tell me about this event and how it celebrates makers here in Utah.

- Yeah, we gather some of the best creatives in the state.

We have actually about a thousand creatives annually from, you know, a bunch of different disciplines.

We have performers, artisans, craft foodies you name it, they'll basically be there.

- Wow, and I heard that this year there is going to be a dedicated youth area.

Can you talk about that?

- Yeah, that's actually Kid Row.

So students from our Youth Entrepreneur Program will actually get a material stipend to actually create a craft.

And then they get to sell the art that they make at Kid Row, which is from 12 to 4 on Saturday at the DIY Festival.

- [Liz] That is incredible.

I think we're seeing pictures of it on the screen right now.

How impressed are you with some of the things these kids can make?

- [Andy] Yeah, it's very impressive.

And they learn a lot of just life skills, and, you know, they grow more confident throughout the program and it's really incredible to see.

- [Liz] Oh, wow.

And we see some pups on this screen and I think we saw entertainment as well.

It seems like there's just so much at this festival year after year.

- Yeah, every year, we're trying to grow it and, you know, there's about 250 total performers.

And yeah, the dog park is always something that we look forward to, so.

- Wow.

Well, PBS Utah is proud to be a co-sponsor of the event along with Avanza and KUER as well.

How has this event just grown over the years?

- Oh, well, initially it was about a 2000-person event in 2009, but now it's the 18th annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival.

And we have about 20,000 attendees annually.

And yeah, we just try to go out every year, little by little, and yeah, it's been going pretty well.

- Oh, so something for everyone to keep coming back year after year.

Thank you so much for sharing this information and for joining us today.

If you would like to check out the Craft Lake City DIY Fest, it's going to be at Utah State Fair Park, August 7th, 8th, and the 9th.

Just head to craftlakecity.com/diy-festival for more details.

I'm Liz Adeola.

Thank you for watching Contact.

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