Rain, mud and extreme heat put a damper on Novi Fine Art Fair

Vibeman John, who brought his vibraphone and bubbles to the event, gives a vibraphone lesson to Natalie, 5, and Lauren Barnett, 7, of Novi.

Photo by Patricia O’Blenes

NOVI — A “trifecta” of extreme weather wreaked havoc on the second annual Novi Fine Art Fair held at Twelve Mile Crossing at Fountain Walk June 20-22.

“It was the roughest weekend ever,’ said Bart Loeb, who helps organize the event with his wife, Karyn Stetz. “We started with rain and mud, and then high humidity and heat, and then the wind. It was like a trifecta of natural disasters.”

Show organizers, staff and participants were forced to set up for the event during a downpour of “endless rain” on Friday, Stetz said. This made the event area not only wet, but muddy and consequently slippery.

Loeb said that because of the rain, the venue offered to let them set up on the pavement instead, but they decided against doing so as the pavement would have been worse in the hot weather that was predicted.

On Saturday, temperatures soared past 100 degrees, resulting in two artists being sent to the hospital via ambulance because of heat exhaustion and/or heatstroke, Loeb said.

The extreme heat was coupled with high humidity and strong winds that caused some of the artists and vendor tents to be blown down or destroyed.

According to  Tracy Curtis, co-owner of Yetti’s Old World Cuisine, of Glandwin, one of the other vendors who was selling chocolate-covered strawberries lost their entire stock of product when the wind toppled her tent, and the vendor was forced to leave early

Many of the 70 artists and some of the vendors chose to leave early and disassemble their tents because of the weather on Saturday. A great deal of them also chose not to return on Sunday, as the weather was projected to be just as hot.

“About half of them left on Saturday night because the wind was sweeping through and blowing down everybody’s tents,” Loeb said. “You know, artists have fragile things, and it’s hard for them to stay.”

Lewis Dennison, better known as Licorice Lew, owner of Licorice Ropes of Southfield, hung in there as long as he could but was ultimately forced to close up shop at around 5 p.m. on Sunday, as it was so hot that his product was melting.

“It was the worst weather weekend I have ever had for a show,” said Stetz, of the Art as Healing Foundation in Brighton. “Endless rain for setup, which caused many changes; extreme heat; and winds that blew away tents. Very challenging.”

The event was expected to draw upward of 5,000 people, but with the heat and humidity, only about 1,000 people attended the event, according to Loeb.

Jon Curtis, co-owner of Yetti’s Old World Cuisine, said that he was disappointed that people didn’t stick it out. He said it wasn’t fair to the artists and businesses who chose to stick with their commitment and that there should be some sort of clause in their contracts prohibiting them from doing so. He said that by artists and vendors leaving early, potential show attendees might have thought the event was closed down and therefore did not attend.

As a result of the extreme weather, Stetz and Loeb are considering changing the time of year the event is held for the 2026 Novi Fine Art Fair.

Meanwhile, Stetz and Loeb are focused on preparations for the upcoming Novi Taco Fest to be held at Twelve Mile Crossing at Fountain Walk Aug. 22-24.