You are in the right place if you want to learn all about the Whatcom SkillShare Faire – a fun festival about teaching and learning all kinds of useful, handy, and practical skills. Years ago, lots of people knew how to repair and sharpen tools, make a braided rug, raise chickens, make soap, build a fence, make simple toys, and much more. The goal of SkillShare is to help revive those skills, showcase some new ones, and provide a place where all of us can come learn from people more experienced in these crafts and trades.

Skill-Sharing is IN!

If you weren’t one of the 600 people that attended last year’s SkillShare Faire, you may have heard- it was informative, entertaining, and lots of fun! We had hourly skill sharing demonstrations throughout the day with all kinds of old-timey and new-fangled resilience building skills. We had great local musicians and bands. The response of fair-goers was overwhelmingly positive. NOW, we are planning this year’s event, building on last year’s success and incorporating many of the excellent suggestions we gathered from attendees.

• SkillShare will be held this year at Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale, a beautiful location with its own history of self-reliance and practical skills exhibits and demonstrations.
• We are adding a special section on fermenting, including a Brewing Demonstration and Beer Garden.
• This year there will be a second day of skill-sharing that will feature hands-on participatory Skillshares that are more involved – for example, building a stage or a chicken coop.
• There will be camping spaces available, so consider staying over a night or two!
• Swap and Barter: We encourage you to bring things to trade and barter such as seeds, recipes, clothes, household items, pottery, produce, preserves, and all kinds of other interesting and useful items and services. One person’s throw-away is another person’s treasure!

So, whether you have a skill to share, you want to know how you can sign up to be a vendor, you would like to participate as a musician or entertainer, or you want to step up as a sponsor or volunteer, or if you just have some questions, you can email us at whatcomskillsharefaire@gmail.com