A combination of loyal support and new blood has kept Yorkton's annual Sunflower Art & Craft Sale in business for 32 years.
One of Saskatchewan's largest craft shows, the Sunflower typically draws between 3,500 and 6,000 people over its two-day run each September. Numbers this year were on par with last year, said Yorkton Arts Council president Lori Glauser.
"In 32 years, I don't think there's been a year where we haven't been happy with it."
The show brings in $25-30,000 annually: enough to fund virtually the entire operations of the Arts Council. The money is spent on the Stars for Saskatchewan concert series, programming at the library, the biennial Parkland Regional Artists Development Opportunity, and other events around the Yorkton area.
One hundred seventy-seven exhibitors from across Canada set up shop at this year's Sunflower Art & Craft Sale at the Gallagher Centre.
Some exhibitors have been at every show since Sunflower's humble origins outside the old Victoria School, said Glauser. Many others were here for the first time.
"I'm excited about a lot of the younger people who have a booth this year. It's nice to have young people entering the arts and doing craft sales like this, because they've got some really good quality stuff."
Potter Brian Beck, a Yorkton resident who helps set up the show each year, was among the earliest displayers.
"They're really a well-organized group," he said. "Even the people who run the concession here, I think they've just bent over backwards to make it as good as possible for those of us who are exhibiting."
Beck said he saw heavy traffic this year and strong sales.
"When you consider what our economy looks like looking out the door, I'm really happy with how we've been supported this year."
Woodturner Rodney Peterson of Nipawin was at the show for the first time. He has been making wooden artwork for the last five years.
"I'm showing what is the accumulation of a life's dream," Peterson said. "It's something I've always wanted to do, is turn wood."
In his retirement, Peterson finally found the time to learn his art. He personally gathers all of his wood from local sources, usually within nearby forests. As the wood needs to be properly dried in several stages, each piece at Peterson's booth was the result of approximately a three-year process.
"Eventually you get enough stuff around that you don't know what to do with it, so you go to craft shows, and it sort of all evolves from there. So it started off as a hobby and now it's almost a vocation."
"I've been kind of lucky, I think," added Peterson. "I've had some pieces that have gone to Japan, and some have gone to Great Britain, and some to France, and some to the States, and quite a few all over Canada."
The Sunflower show has seen it all over the decades, and not just in terms of art varieties.
"We've had snow, we've had torrential rains, we've had heat so bad you could hardly stand it. Almost anything can happen this weekend," said Merle Sherwin, another organizer.
This year's minor disaster was a power outage on Friday evening while the Gallagher Centre was packed with attendees. Regulations call for the building to be evacuated after 15 minutes without power, so the incident made for a tense few minutes. However, maintenance staff had the problem fixed before time ran out.
Glauser thanked the Gallagher Centre staff as well as the public for making Sunflower a success.
"The reason the show runs so well is that we have such good support."
