The seventh Lancaster Printers Fair will take place on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20 and 21, in downtown Lancaster. The event started in 2013 as a nod to Lancaster's place in printing history and features vendors and suppliers of letterpress equipment, foundry type, cards, posters, broadsides, ephemera, and more.
To kick off the two-day event, members of the the .918 Club, which is organizing the fair, will show "Pressing On," a film about the craft of letterpress printing, on Sept. 20 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at The Candy Factory, located near the club's Heritage Press Museum, 346 N. Queen St., Lancaster. There is no cost.
The museum also will be open that evening with demonstrations and hands-on activities. For the second year, three exhibits will be on display that night. Prints by Rebecca Blossler will be exhibited at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, 335 N. Queen St., through October, and the guild will remain open until 9 p.m. on Sept. 20. Paper pulp sculptures by Angela Heaps will be in the windows at Madcap & Co., 310 N. Queen St., through Monday, Sept. 23. Prints by Martin Mazorra at Realm and Reason, 213 W. King St., will be on display until Monday, Sept. 30; the venue will be open until 10 p.m. on Sept. 20 and will host an after-party reception.
On Sept. 21, the street fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the closed-to-traffic 300 block of North Queen Street, where all nearby merchants will remain open for business. The street will be filled with vendors from across the region selling printing supplies and handmade products, and there will be printing demonstrations and food vendors. Activities for children will also be available.
As a part of the street fair, the public can learn about H.N. Werkman, a printer from the Dutch province of Groningen during World War II, from noon to 3 p.m. Attendees can also try their hand at creating and printing a keepsake postcard. A salon-style group show of Lancaster printers will take place during the street fair, as well, and the exhibition will include work by Stephanie Hinish, Arthur Padelsky, Ben Williamson, Victoria Duggan, Brianna Maule, Gabby Shelly, Paula Mann, and Henry Gepfer.
Returning this year will be a beer and burger garden presented by Voodoo Brewery and Cabalar Meat Co. A percentage of the sales will go to the .918 Club's mission at the Heritage Press Education Center on the campus of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. Other food available will be Auntie Anne's pretzels, as well as ice cream by Splits and Giggles. Beverages will be available, as well.
This year's print-related vendors include AIGA Central PA, American Printing History Association Chesapeake Chapter, Base Press, Blue Letterpress, Boss Dog Press, Bowerbox Press, Boxcar Press, Cannon Ball Press, Conestoga Press, Crow Designs at The Workshop, FlexoCraft, Frederick Book Arts Center, Fresh Prints of Lancaster, Frontline Arts, Gingerly Press, Lucky Mfg. Co., Madcap & Co., Model Citizen Press, P22, Pressing Needs, Sincell Publishing Company, The Itinerant Printer, and Typothecary Letterpress.
The event is free to the public. Any money raised will benefit the nonprofit .918 Club's ongoing efforts to the education and preservation of letterpress printing. All-day parking passes will be available for a nominal fee at the North Queen Street Garage. For more information, readers may visit http://www.printersfair.com.
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