The Ohio Vintage Fest will take place March 12 at the Ohio Expo Center. Credit: Courtesy of Dalton Willis
Vendors of vintage clothing, records and toys from all over the state will congregate in Columbus at the Ohio Vintage Fest March 12.
Sam Brann, one of three founders of the Ohio Vintage Fest and a student at Kent State University, said the event will feature more than 70 vendors from noon to 6 p.m. at the Rhodes Center in the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair. Brann, who sells vintage clothing through Depop, Hunter Music, owner of Past Over Present Vintage, and Jared Wise, owner of Dayton Vintage, have been friends since 2016 and share a love of all things vintage.
They came up with the idea in August 2021 as the result of an entrepreneurship class that required Brann to create a business startup, he said.
“I have been selling shoes since I was 13, and as I got older, I kind of got tired of the repetitiveness,” Brann said. “I really just enjoyed hunting for stuff, and I just started going every day. So that’s how I got into thrifting clothes and turned it into a business.”
The March festival will be the second rendition of the Ohio Vintage Fest, the first of which took place in December 2021 in the same space, Brann said. He said the December festival went well and inspired him to host it again.
“There is nothing like this around that’s all vintage clothing,” Brann said. “It’s something really fun to get into, and it’s better than shopping for fast fashion because you are supporting local businesses.”
Gisselle Pereira, owner of the vintage shop StockedVintage, will be selling her clothes at the festival and said the fact that a vintage-related event as large as the Ohio Vintage Fest exists in Ohio is a big deal for vendors like herself.
“It’s a pretty big festival for vintage sellers in Ohio, specifically, just because it’s newer,” Pereira said. “Ohio tends to be further behind than other states. There are a lot of big vintage events that happen across the country but, for Ohio, people aren’t super into vintage in the way that people in other places like New York, LA or Texas are.”
Pereira grew up thrifting and said she turned it into a business in 2015. She sells her pieces online through Instagram and Depop and said she also works out of Saturday Studio — located at 116 N. Jefferson St. in Dayton, Ohio — where clients can book appointments for styling sessions with her.
Pereira said clothing can empower wearers and offers a unique way for people to express themselves. She said she has an affinity for outerwear and styles from the ’70s and ’90s and takes the time to source her pieces from estate sales, garage sales and online stores.
“The overarching theme of when I’m sourcing pieces are pieces that feel classic and current,” Pereira said. “I curate StockedVintage as an extension of my personal style. It is very much vintage that can live in your closet, hopefully forever.”
Pereira said she was invited to participate in the Ohio Vintage Fest by Wise, who she knew through other vintage pop-ups.
“Vintage sellers are a very close community, and they want to support one another,” Pereira said. “They tend to have each other’s back because it can be competitive with big stores that sell things very inexpensively.”
Brann said vendors will each have a 10-by-10-foot space for their setup, and each space will offer customers something a little different from the next.
“Definitely bring a bag and take a peek into each booth and see if you would find something in there,” Brann said. “You could for sure spend the full six hours in there.”
Tickets are $5 for admission and $5 for parking and can be purchased on the Ohio Vintage Fest Eventbrite page. According to the festival’s Instagram page, 10 percent of ticket sales at the door will be donated to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.
