Junque

By JANE CURTIS

JunqueFest returns this year with the promise of even more.

More activities – the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce is negotiating to make adult beverages available outdoors, according to Anna Woodward, Chamber director, with the opportunity for local nonprofits to help serve and keep the tips.

More music – Kris Karr, Chip Evans, Rod Johnson, and Bill Robb, will be sponsored collaboratively by local financial institutions to provide the two-day event’s soundtrack. More vendors – a fourth building has been added to the site plan at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, 1200 Bluff St., Webster City.

More than junque awaits visitors Friday and Saturday, May 26 and 27. The hours Friday are from noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday the event is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year’s JunqueFest is sponsored in part by The Trash Man. Admission to the grounds is $1; there is no charge for children 12 and under. Parking is free.

JunqueFest is an annual undertaking that draws thousands of shoppers to Webster City on Memorial Weekend. It’s been doing so since 2014, though the pandemic year of 2020 was the exception.

The name, according to Mike Constant, one of JunqueFest’s founders, was the fruit of collaboration, much like the event itself.

“I came up with the name based on several other shows happening around Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Junk was a big draw at the time, and I push location and local in my business, IowaAntiqueNetwork.com,” Constant, of Webster City, said. “Deb Brown came up with Fest, so I included it all together.” Brown was Chamber director at the time.

That first year, more than 50 vendors set up in downtown Webster City, drawing the thousands of people both Constant and Brown hoped would come.

In year two, 2015, the number of vendors rose to 80, the site changed to Wilson Brewer Historic Park, at the corner of Superior and Ohio streets, and the shoppers converged.

In that second year, JunqueFest organizers announced JunqueFest Too, which hosted vendors selling homemade crafts, goods and direct sale items. JunqueFest Too was located across Superior Street from the park at Carsten’s Auto Body and Customs and Doc’s Stop.

That cemented JunqueFest’s identity as an event that is about more than junque.

“Junquers” repurpose barn wood into hutches, bookshelves, and picture frames. They take items like vintage dressers and fix them up with the addition of chalk paint to make the old item look new. They fashion lawn ornaments from old farm equipment.

JunqueFest moved to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in its 2021 return from the pandemic hiatus. Past vendors have come from all over Iowa, southeast Nebraska, central Illinois, central South Dakota, and Missouri.

“Some of these vendors said the name is so good that when they go to a show, they’ll bring 100 or so people along with them just to buy the stuff because they only do four or five shows a year,” Constant said.

With signage to help visitors find the vendors they seek, a map of the grounds accompanied by a vendor list, an ATM on site and a food court with tables, Webster City is ready with the metaphoric welcome mat.

In other words, company’s coming and they’re on the hunt for junque.

For more information, go online to visitwebstercityiowa.com or visit the Webster City Area Chamber Facebook page