GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – On July 13, Carboy Winery in Palisade welcomed dozens of vendors and guests for their annual Summer Craft Fair. However, the manager said that days leading up to the event someone impersonated the winery online and targeted vendors and artists with a scam.
The purpose of this event was to open a free space for local artists to sell their work.
“A lot of these people are friends and neighbors that have side gigs and hobbies that they make their own crafts. Some people it’s their full time job. But for us it’s really important to be able to allow people a venue to show their stuff,” said Barbie Graham, Manager at Carboy Winery in Palisade.
The event was filled with handmade creations, food, wine, and live music.
“We hold 2 craft fairs annually, one in the summer and one right after Thanksgiving, so we’ve got 20 different vendors out here all selling handmade products. Everybody’s local. It’s really fun. We get to just bring a ton of people out,” said Graham.
According to Graham, this year’s fair had a complication with interested artists and vendors from Denver.
“We had a crazy Facebook scam happen to us with around where someone took our post and reposted it and was putting it on Call for Artists forums in Denver and trying to scam people for booths,” said Graham.
According to Graham, the scammer was requesting about $70 for interested vendors to reserve a booth for the event.
Despite confusion, the fair went forward with a strong turnout and local support. Graham said that this incident has her thinking about exploring new ways to welcome more artists in future events.
Ultimately, Graham wants to help support the arts within the community.
“We don’t care if you buy wine or not. It’d be awesome if you buy wine, but we want all of the vendors here to be able to have people see their artwork because they don’t have a lot of places to,” said Graham.
Graham said that there was a police report filed but we have no other information on its status at this time.
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