Downtown hosts Family Fest on 5th

ANTIGO — Saturday morning, 5th Ave. was the site of Family Fest on 5th, the street gathering designed to highlight downtown businesses and bring community members to the downtown for a day of fun.

The event, organized by the downtown business association Thrive on Five, ran from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It featured wide-ranging vendors and family-friendly attractions, and brought ample business to the stores along the street.

Three quite upbeat attendees at the event were Jourdan Gregurich, his girlfriend Kayla Smith, and their daughter Natalia, a family visiting from the Appleton area and holding hands as they made their way along the street. Gregurich said his grandmother, from Deerbrook, had a craft and jewelry stand on the east side of the avenue, and that it was their first time coming to the event, previously known as “Party on the Ave.”

“It’s been really nice,” said Gregurich, who said the best part of the event was watching Natalia ride the children’s barrel train. “It’s not like Octoberfest in Appleton where you can’t even walk on the sidewalk — it’s nice to have a little bit of breathing room.”

A good number of children throughout the morning surrounded a small petting zoo filled with ducks, chickens, calves, piglets, and baby goats near Dorr St. The animals had been brought by Jen Zima and Bobbi MacDonald from their respective hobby farms south of the city. They complimented the kids — and the animals — on their behavior throughout the morning.

“The goats are actually loving the attention. They’re doing great. I think the ducks are the only ones having a fit,” laughed MacDonald as the ducks waddled to the far side of the wire cage each time kids reached in towards them.

“I’ve had a few people say that this is the best part of the event — the kids are just loving it,” Zima said. “There have been some that have been down here several times. The guy that drives the train started picking kids up here.”

Another favorite of some at the event was “Chalk It Up,” an activity in front of Harper’s Mercantile in which artistically-inclined visitors grabbed pieces of chalk from plastic bags set around the area and drew in the middle of the road.

At perhaps noon, Antigo Middle School art teacher Tonya Hardin, along with her niece and one of her students, were there creating relatively involved designs.

“Mine is a hot air balloon floating above a lake. There’s a boat right here. Then it’s the northwoods around us, where we always feel far from home, but we always stay close, so that when the sun sets, we always come back home,” said Hardin, who complimented the idea to reserve a section of the street for chalk art, but suggested it expand in future years. “I think it would be really awesome if they would have a chalk contest honestly and supply a cup of water. You can do a lot with the wet chalk to make it more vibrant.”

Hardin’s niece Jacqueline Fieck, who will be starting her own art studio in Wausau, said her first chalk drawing of the morning had been compromised.

“I first started making a fish jumping out of water, but a lovely little two year old wanted to come help me, so now it’s just a very colorful scene with a fish jumping out of water,” Fieck said, smiling. “Then I did this rose and because I didn’t have a black to really crisp up my shadows, I used purple and blue — I didn’t want to muddy it with brown. But when I heard they were doing chalk drawings, it was really nice just to come here and have fun.”

Not far away was Shyla Brown, the owner of Sparked by Shyla, a Rhinelander-based vendor selling relatively unique items.

“It’s permanent jewelry, essentially claspless jewelry, so it doesn’t come off — it stays on as long as you want or until you decide to cut it off,” Brown said. “It’s kind of a big craze going on in the boutique world right now. You create your own custom piece of jewelry, so you choose the chain and you can add charms and connectors to it. I’ve had people do matching ones like mommy and daughter things, best friend things. People can use them for girls’ nights, birthday parties, bachelorette parties, just anything to have a fun experience together and something to remember it by. A lot of people still don’t know what it is, but they’re very intrigued by it. It’s something different.”

An Eagle River woman named Sarah Bloom, the owner of an essential oils business called Botanicals by Sarah Bloom, was at the intersection of 5th and Morse St.

“I’ve got some diffusers, homemade wooden flowers, and then I also have hanging vials that people would choose. I call it ‘Build Your Own Scent’ where they would choose the essential oils. They carry your oil and then your vial and then I’ll make it right here for them and then they have their own unique scent, whether they want to use it as perfume or hang it in a jar. I’ve had the necklaces sell a lot more today, and they hold just a couple drops of essential oil — the stone is porous, so it allows the scent out.”

Bloom called Family Fest on 5th “a great event.”

“It allows the families of the area to get together, to have fun, and it just has a bunch of unique things that make people happy, whether you come with kids or without kids,” she said.

One area that saw not a small amount of foot traffic throughout the morning was the section of Clermont St. in front of Yesterday’s Sign Park. Posted there was a dunk tank, the proceeds for which went to William’s House of Hope. Around 1 p.m., Dillon Gretzinger, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Northwoods, was sitting on the plank, bracing himself as visitors whipped softballs at the metal target.

During a lull, his daughter walked up and took a turn. She missed, then simply walked up to the target and gave it a shove with her hands, sending her dad plunging into the water.

Gretzinger, nevertheless, expressed positivity about how his shift in the tank, and the day in general, had gone thus far.

“It’s nice and spread out, so it’s not so congested. You can get in and out of places, especially with kids, easily,” said Gretzinger, who had come to the event with his wife and son as well. “They got the shaved ices. We stopped at the exotic pet store and took a look at all the animals they have. That’s about all we’ve done so far, but just getting out in the city and seeing everybody come together feels good.”