Despite flash flooding early in the week, the 2025 Blueberry Arts Festival had a strong showing to rival any previous year.
Eva Sebesta, executive director of the Ely Chamber of Commerce, estimates that nearly 40,000 people flocked to town to take part in the festivities, with about half arriving on Friday alone.
“It was probably one of the best Fridays we’ve ever had, as far as far as attendance,” said Sebesta, “We heard from quite a few vendors that the Friday sales were the strongest they had, and some of them actually exceeded what they were expecting for the whole weekend.”
In recent years, the festival faced a decrease in vendors after Covid-19 and the 2021 wind storm, which Sebesta said brought “total decimation” to two-thirds of Whiteside Park. Sebesta says that pre-pandemic showings typically totaled around 30,000 to 35,000 for Ely’s most popular event.
“During Covid, we saw a number of the older vendors who just said, we can’t do this anymore. And then the wind storm, that knocked out probably another quarter to a third of our vendors,” Sebesta said.
“In the last couple years, we’ve really been rebuilding. And both last year and this year, we were sold out with waiting lists between 20 to 40 vendors wanting to get in,” Sebesta said.
This year was not without its weather concerns, but the Wednesday floods and the threat for more rain on Sunday did not dampen the celebration.
“Wednesday afternoon at about 5:30 we had over 20 booths along Sheridan Street that were underwater,” said Sebesta, “By the time we got there at 5:30 on Thursday morning, there were only four booths that were still underwater, and we had enough space that we were able to adjust around that wet spot. By Thursday afternoon, it was completely gone.”
Another storm supercell threatened to pass directly over Ely on Sunday, which led the Chamber to announce a 1:00 pm closure. However, the storm shifted its path and the early shutdown was avoided.
“As we got to the late morning, it looked like everything was heading north of us, and we had quite a number of vendors that came up to us and asked if they could please stay open. And so we decided to just go ahead, stay open,” said Sebesta, “There were a few vendors that wanted to leave, so we gave them the option to hand cart all of their items out of the park, but we didn’t allow any vehicles in until four, just for public safety.”
Vendors hail from towns and cities nationwide: the furthest arrives from Florida, while others come from Illinois, Iowa, the Dakotas, and elsewhere across the Midwest. Sebesta says that about 20 percent of vendors live in the Ely-Winton-Babbitt- Tower area.
New offerings this year improved the experience for all sellers. Festival organizers set up a meal delivery service, where vendors could pre-order and pre-pay for lunch or dinner from a food truck and receive the deliveries from Sheridan Inn volunteers. Meanwhile, Chamber staff once again offered to booth-sit for vendors who needed to take a quick break.
The annual People’s Choice Awards proceeded as planned, encompassing six categories ranging from food to crafts and t-shirts, with the top three choices ranked for each category. The numerous winners include syrup vendor Under the Bark, the Now That’s Waffles food truck which specializes in waffles-on-a-stick, Grand Rapids watercolor artist Michelle Schwake, and Moose Lake-based pottery vendor Artistic Mud.
The Chamber will soon receive feedback from sellers through an internal evaluation survey, which will guide next year’s event.
“We ask them what worked, what didn’t, what things we should do differently for next year,” said Sebesta, “We also ask them for economic information.”
She said that last year, the survey revealed that vendors had spent around $151,000 in the Ely area for lodging — a figure which does not include the revenue brought into town by the thousands and thousands of visitors who also visited over the weekend.
“The festival has a huge, huge economic impact across the whole community and the surrounding communities,” said Sebesta, “We have finally reached a good spot where people know there will be quality arts and crafts (at the festival), and they want to be there.”
