While the ceramists, wood turners, fiber artists, and other craftspeople of the ACC’s 2016 San Francisco American Craft Show bustle to construct their booths and unpack their wares for sale this weekend, we have decided to revisit the archives for a tour of the setup of a fair from 45 years ago. Although hairstyles have changed, bell bottoms have tapered, and craft trends have ebbed and flowed from popularity, this nostalgic glance at the past reminds us of the exciting – and sometimes frenzied – hours that lead up to the opening of a major show.

Set to the folksy tunes played by a group of the the fair’s artists during a lull in the weekend’s events, this footage is taken from the Bennington Craft Fair in Bennington, Vermont, July 8 – 11, 1971.

For the three days of the Northeast Regional Assembly’s annual craft fair, Mt. Anthony Union High School hosted approximately 300 talented craftspeople, 300 keen-eyed wholesale buyers, and thousands of vacationing summertime visitors. For that lucky third that were able to avoid the early-July hot spell, the school gym, cafeteria, and auditorium hosted their crafts. And for the heroic two-thirds that laid stakes in the courtyard and campus outdoor space, the weekend was one of red hot sales and likely sunburns.

Although this weekend’s San Francisco craft show will all be housed in Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion, and the sun is not forecasted to blister as it did 45 years ago in Bennington, we can be assured that the work will be as hot as ever, and the pavilion will be full of eager visitors.

Taylor Rose recently received her BA in art history from the University of Minnesota, and will soon be pursuing graduate work at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York City. This summer she’s a 2016 Windgate museum intern working with ACC Library staff to digitize and edit audio and film footage from the ACC archives.