Bazaar Bizarre

This holiday fair has changed it’s name to SF Bazarr.
The location has also changed, it’s back to it’s original location at Fort Mason.
The first year at this venue it was drafty and freezing.
Fortunately. the Fort Mason space has been improved (radiant floor heating!!!)
The fair was organized better, less cramped, more room in the aisles and between vendors. Major improvements all around.
Great selection of vendors: many I’ve seen in previous years, but some new ones as well.
We were also thrilled to see that all the vendors were from the Bay Area.
The first few years, there were local vendors, but (like Renegade Craft Faire) many were not.
We try to do as much holiday shopping here as possible.
We found some unique gifts, (for others, and ourselves.)
I can’t recommend enough for people to go to this fair. Get out of the big box chain stores and support your local artisans!
Looking forward to next year’s holiday fair.

Nice venue! Huge open space and tons of great local businesses. I wish I had money to support them. My only complain was there wasn’t an actual eatery there. All specialty shops but no real food. My gf got a lot of mileage out of the several jewelry stores there though. I hope there are more of these around in the future.

I’ve been to a few Bazaar Bizarres, and honestly this past weekend (the Holiday one) wasn’t too impressive. I honestly felt like I’ve seen better from these fairs in the past. Don’t get me wrong, the vendors are very creative and talented, but I guess my expectations were higher? I liked the free scrap fabrics, and free photos (which is pretty much always there).
Reading below, I’m not the only one that feels this way. It was kind’ve boring. ANOTHER thing!!! I’m sorry/​Not sorry I have to do this.
DJ Bay-​Sik, I’m calling you out. I purchased 4 mixed from you! Seriously. Loved your Christmas mix, — — –BUT ONE OF YOUR CDS you gave me were blank!!! I FB’d you ad what? No response? After supporting you, talking to you for about 20mins about music, you can’t do me the favor and help a customer on your fault?
The music from the fair is was drew me to you, and also with your customer service, but VERY VERY disappointed on rcv’ing a blank CD, contacting you, and no response back!!! Its been a week. Bazaar Bizarre, look into this fool.

Have been going to this event for the past two years. I went yesterday and all the crafts were so boring!!! They seem to have the same vendors year after year that are selling the same cutesy stuff. How about some originality folks?

I came to the Cherry Blossom Festival two weekends ago and made my way in here after the parade. I had no idea what to expect inside, but found a range of items from useless trinkets, to impressive art, to wild samurai looking clothing.
I didn’t buy much and the prices seemed a bit high, but I did get a kick out of browsing and did find a few useless trinkets worth buying, if that makes any sense.

This was my second time at Bazaar Bizarre! I am a huge fan of arts & crafts festivals and I can say this is one of my all time favorites! I had such a great time with my friends and I look forward to attending the next one.
If you’re looking for a unique gift for someone or love to support the the talented and creative vendors, look no further. You can find anything and everything here. Unlike a lot of festivals, you don’t have to be afraid that you don’t have enough cash on hand to make your purchases because the majority of vendors accept credit cards as well.
My only complaint is that they don’t have more events like this year round.

This is one of my FAVORITE arts & crafts festivals.
Bazaar Bizarre showcases a wide variety of talented, creative and amazing artists who excel at their crafts and love sharing their work and ideas with others. There’s a great vibe here– everyone is supportive, excited enthusiastic and happy. Each artist is more than happy to share their love of their craft and how they’ are inspired to keep doing what they do.
If you’re looking for unique, handmade gifts, look no further because you’ll find one-​of-​a-​kind creations at Bazaar Bizarre. This year (2012), Bazaar Bizarre had music, a picture booth and artists galore at the Concourse Exhibition Center.
I also wanted to give a shout out and send lots of love to MOCHI STUDIOS by Miss Rita C. :) During the 2012 and 2010 Bazaar Bizarre show, Mochi Studios debuted its adorable plushies, which ranged from sweet pea pods, cute animals in logs (foxes, bunnies, racoons and owls, oh my! :)) to a lovely rainbow of narwhals and crafty holiday gnomes sitting on perfect little tree stumps. What’s not to love? :) Congrats on a successful show, and here’s to many more to come! Hearts!
By the way, the name is trippy! Bazaar Bizarre. Don’t ask why– it just is :)

Bizarre? Only if you’re accustomed to shopping at Cost Plus or other über mass produced retail chains.

This was so awesome! It was my first year here and it was great. Lots of things to look at and participate in. It was very cool to see some of the artists work on new pieces, while selling their work. I did leave with one gift (I was trying to be good) and a stack of business cards! I wish there were more events like this, more often.

Looking for a unique gift for the holidays? Bazaar Bizarre is the perfect place to find it. OK, I’ll admit it. When I first heard that I was going to a craft fair, I envisioned birdhouses, lots of needlework and homemade soaps. I was very very wrong. Thinking that I would only spend an hour here, tops, I ended up wandering around for 3 – 4 hours. This event is pretty awesome because you get to see how talented and creative people are out there. If you’re looking for some flair for your place that a thousand other people didn’t also buy at IKEA, you should be able to find something here. The target demographic definitely seems to skew towards the hipster crowd and their love of DIY and repurposed goods. Quite a few mustaches to be found on the various t-​shirts, hats, prints, wallets and baby clothes that the vendors are selling here.
So how to describe what they sell? That’s difficult, as it runs the whole gamut. Lots of jewelry, and I’ll have to take other people’s word for it that they have a lot of interesting pieces. Some other standards like clothing: unique and interesting t-​shirts, handmade clothing and accessories (scarves, mittens/​gloves, hats), art/​photography prints, etc. Seriously, such a huge variety of things. I guess the best way to think of it is if Etsy decided to put on a show in real life, which I guess is what it did, since I think Etsy was one of the sponsors of the show. There was also an area for making your own crafts, which seemed to be great for the kids.
The stuff is usually not super cheap, but here’s what you may not know: a lot of the stuff they sell here are sold at small boutique stores around the city, but at much higher prices. Things like stationery might be a couple of bucks at the show, but at least double the price in a small card shop. The real secret about the Bazaar Bizarre is that some of the vendors bring their overstock or clearance stuff to sell here, so you can get some really great deals on stuff like off-​color designs. And, you can bargain with the vendors if you want to buy multiples. With the increased use of iPad/​iPhone credit card devices, most of the vendors will accept credit cards, but I would still plan on bringing cash because it’s still king here.
The Bazaar Bizarre is also free admission, so, uh, score! This year it was held at the Concourse Exhibition Hall in SOMA, which has plenty of free parking nearby. And I like the idea of supporting local artists/​businesses. After talking to a lot of the people, you really get a sense that they put a whole lot of effort into their work, and that’s something that should be nurtured. That being said, there’s a lot of potential to load up on a bunch of ‘stuff’ that will just get pushed into the back of the closet after awhile, so hopefully you’ve got a storage unit rented out in case you need it.

I’m a sucker for arts & crafts, so I loved this show. A lot of the vendors here sell their items on Etsy, so if you can’t make an impulsive decision to drop $ 15 on a three-​inch vase, then you can think it over and do so later. I am not sure whether there was designated parking for this event, but we parked on the street and had to move our car every 30 minutes.
Does anyone know if there are other events like this in the Bay Area?

Visited with some friends for the first time today, and wow, so impressed. The creativity! The deals! Parking was easy and free since it was Sunday. Admission was free too. Awesome. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but I still found a ton of really unique gifts for family and friends and a lot of amazing art for my home and office. It’s great a lot of the vendors also had stores on
so I can order more later. But a lot of the vendors had show deals that gave a really nice discount from their usual prices on their online stores. Even my husband was impressed and helped me pick out quite a few items.
We bought onesies and t-​shirts for our friends’ kids and niece and nephew. We also bought stationary, prints and artwork. A lot of the vendors were selling jewelry, pillows, bags, shirts, soaps, etc… but it never got repetitive… the level creativity in the room was amazing. It was also nice that most of the vendors accepted credit cards too. Made it easier for me to buy more.
Will be back.

What better holiday gifts than by local artisans? This was my first time to BB. I recommend getting there when it opens, as it gets busy very quickly. There are tons of great vendors there. A couple of my faves were was molly m, who had gorgeous lasercut wood jewelry and Emma SanCartier modern fairy tale illustrations.
A couple of improvements needed– yes, the venue is a little small and stuffy, and the food is lacking and what is available is overpriced. I got ripped off by Chairman Bao’s.
Highly recommended, though, and kudos to all the talents in the Bay!

So much to spend one’s money on, so little time. And oh, so little money. Crapola. Super cute jewelry, stationery, clothing, and other cool.pretty.things. And whaaatttt? Cupcakes, raffle prizes, and Magnolia Photo Booth too? Love it.

This is not your mother’s crafts fair… although my mom did come with me. I love it! I went to this crafts fair last weekend and had a great time. This is a great place to get Christmas shopping done. Everyone’s crafts are very unique and not stuff you see everyday. There is a pretty wide price range. I got a pair of earrings for $ 25, a t-​shirt for $ 25, and 2 crocheted hats for $ 35 a piece… and if you wanted to spend more, there was plenty more in the higher price range. When I was done walking around the whole thing I was kinda disappointed because I wished there was more. I really enjoyed this event and the cool handmade crafts I will definitely be back next year.

This is by far the BEST craft show of the year! It is full of unique vendors and in an atmosphere that is fun and creative. Where else can you learn a new craft at a workshop and shop for local hand-​made goods? Even thought it was raining, it was very accommodating and pleasant indoors. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes to shop for funky, cool and unique items. Don’t miss the next one!

This fair is a perfect example of an offbeat San Francisco style fair. You can find all the cool homemade stuffs, but it was a bit pricey. It was crowded even though it was raining.

Fun indie craft fair! I liked seeing all the vendors and their wares; the main reason I went to the fair was to meet Tomoko Maruyama, who makes really cute San Francisco cards/​designs! (
)
Other than that, I wasn’t sure of what to expect beforehand, but I wasn’t disappointed. Even though most of the wares were pricey (and, to be honest, not very useful to me), there were many many cute things to look at. I liked the free bookmarks and stickers though; picked up a ton of business cards to check up on the vendors later on when I need some gift ideas.
Overall, not bad… but I wonder, where was the Unilocal!table? There was supposed to be one…

Bizarre Bazaar is a smaller version of Renegade Craft Fair (with some of the same crafty people, about 100 vendors) only they charge $ 2 admission and RCF is free (and better). Same concept (art and craft fair), uglier (and stuffier) venue, even the same cupcakes (by Cynically Delicious). BB had live music, craft workshops, a prize raffle, and a clothing swap. New People had a table there where they handed out buttons and stickers. Some vendors had free candy and buttons to entice you to their table.
So what can you expect to find? DIY crafters like some of the same themes — «cute» poop which is a gross concept, mustaches (I’m bored with them already), cupcakes (can’t get tired of cupcakes), birds and trees. Once you’ve been to one fair, you realize that it’s the same thing: jewelry, silk screened t-​shirts, knitted/​crochet items, stuffed animals, wallets, journals, letterpress cards, bags and clothing made out of recycled materials.
There were some cute vendors worthy of being mentioned.
* Hamburgerpanda’s stinky tofu t-​shirt:
* Twinkie Chan’s crochet candy purses, crochet gingerbread men:

* Mochi Studios super soft peapods, Ninja dolls (Helene K., you should get one) and mushrooms that would make great pincushions:

T’was the day of the Bazaar and all through the rows
Stood tables upon tables of crafty good show
Pillows, and bibs, home décor from Swizzlestix
Fun color splashes, all cool and hip
5733 designer T-​Shirts and more
Straight out of Oakland, hard to the core
Etta Billie’s yummy Balms, Soaps and Scrubs
Handmade bath and beauty — even for the tub!
Hamburger Panda scuba kitty T’s
Unusual designs — YES please!
Martin Hsu’s illustrations, paintings and prints
Inspired by fantastic creatures, and Chinese myth
Bird Mafia Textiles, ornaments and square squids
Handcrafted pillows, and fit for big kids!
Jewelry and hand crafted clothes
To wool moustaches that sit on your nose!
Katy Kristin’s whimsical handmade plush toys
Fun for both big kids and little boys
Handcrafted kids’ clothes in all shapes, sizes and fits
To games and miniature pocket theatre kits
Seattle Show Posters, designed smart
For those that like flare and screenprinted art
Funky hand crocheted hats and scarves
To Jamie Zollars’ one a kind greeting cards
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head
But I’ll dream of crafty goodness all in my bed!