[The following story appears in the July/August 2026 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine:]
After moving to Vermont in 2021, Lee Baker wondered if the time was right to finally “make some money with this ceramics hobby of mine.”
But selling their pottery at local farmers markets didn’t connect Baker to a community that might support and sustain a gay-owned business. An idea struck. Why not organize an arts and crafts event for LGBTQ artisans during the busy holiday season?
“I knew so many queer people making weird stuff,” says Baker, now a full-time potter and owner of Attention Craft Ceramics. The idea to “get together and sell in November and December” led to the first winter crafts event with 30 vendors in Barre, a town over from Montpelier.
“We had a foot of snow and we still got 1,000 people” in December 2022, recalls Baker. The following year, the winter event expanded to outdoors (“because Vermonters are tough,” laughs Baker) and two indoor buildings.
Buoyed by the winter event’s success, organizers aimed higher. They built a queer summer country fair and yes, the tough Vermonters came out for that one too. Last year’s Queer Arts Festival showcased nearly 100 vendors and performers, culled via lottery from 230 applications. The fair at the outdoor site in Barre drew about 3,000 visitors. “Everybody gay in the state of Vermont,” says Baker.
This year, the festival expands to a two-day celebration. The 2026 Queer Arts Fest takes place August 15 and 16 at Barre, Vermont’s Millstone Hill.
Visitors on Saturday will find tents filled with crafts such as jewelry, woodcarving, art, and leatherworks as well as (befitting a rural event) farm-made cheeses and native plants and seeds. Music and dance performances take place all weekend. Added on Sunday will be workshops on a host of topics. “Things emerge from our community; people share at this event. That’s one of my favorite pieces,” says Baker.
“It’s a celebration of rural queer life and how deeply skilled people are,” says Baker. The fair showcases unique work that “takes process and time. It could be lost to industry. I find that really special.”
Vendors and attendees come from all over New England. “It’s so special to have this giant celebration of queerness in rural Vermont,” says Baker. “We have an incredible network of volunteers who come out to this event. We do things in a relational way, so we get to know the people who are our volunteers. Many live in rural areas and want to come here. The narrative is that most queer people are in cities. That’s not true.”
Building this kind of support and enthusiasm right in their own rural community makes a huge difference to crafters like Baker. “My work is mugs, cups, bowls—I can print ‘gay’ on a mug, and it’s silly but people love it. Other things are slightly weirder and queerer. ‘Are you a boy or girl?’ and on the other side it says, ‘I’m a cup.’ People who come to our events are there to support queer artists.”
Kenzie Hines of Kenzie Hines Printworks started as a volunteer at the winter crafts fair and is now on the organizing team as well as a vendor for their handcrafted prints and dyed textiles.
Hines was hooked from the first winter craft event in Barre, noting “There are so many gay people here!”
“I was a vendor at every fair except the first one, selling prints. I was a farm worker for a decade and had done the farmer’s markets along with selling my prints. It’s a grind. Now I reach people I feel more kinship with. It’s not as random as the farmer’s markets.”
As an organizer, Hines coordinates safety training in deescalation to avoid police presence at the fairs. Trained volunteers serve as medics and traffic coordinators.
Since 2016, Hines moved between Vermont and “very rural” Montana so experienced firsthand that queer people “are everywhere. We are embedded in rural communities as farmers and volunteer firefighters. We have amazing volunteers—a small army of the most helpful people I’ve ever met in my life. They come and help people unload cars. This network is so cool and really speaks to the fact that it’s not just [the organizers] putting on” the event, Hines says.
From the organizers to the volunteers and vendors, the Queer Arts Fest is a grassroots celebration of community in rural Vermont. “We highlight that we are everywhere and rural queer life is special,” says Hines. “It is a conscious decision not to be in Burlington or Montpelier because queer people there don’t need more events.”
Besides community spirit and one-of-a-kind crafts, the Queer Arts Fest offers something else, says Hines. “It’s one of the only places to meet new people. I’ve had feedback saying, ‘I found love at the queer crafts fair!’”
More: @vtqueercrafts on Instagram
