Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival: A 15-year celebration of community and crafts

Familiar faces and longtime vendors reunited in Lexington last weekend for the 15th annual Sheep and Fiber Festival.

The gathering was held at Masterson Station Park in collaboration with Lexington Parks & Rec, the Kentucky Sheep and Goat Development Office and other associations and fiber guilds, according to Sarabeth Parido, the festival’s director.

“The Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival began in 2009 when some fiber enthusiasts and some agriculture enthusiasts got together and realized that Kentucky needed a festival that could represent their crafts and culture,” organizers said on their website.

Over the years, a community began to take shape, involving participants and those attending the fair.

It’s like a “family reunion.” said Parido, who has been festival director for 10 years.

“So many of these folks travel to different festivals and return to our festival. We’re able to see each other, there’s hugs, there’s tears, everybody’s excited to see each other and show off what they’ve done over the past year,” she said.

Included in this community typically is 50-plus vendors showcasing fiber supplies and products.

Last weekend, right near the festival’s entrance, was Paula Bowron, collectively known as “The Fiber Queen.”

The owner of Whispering Birch Farm and Fiber said she has been at the festival for “at least 10 years.”

As a longtime participant, she said she knows all of the other vendors and travels to shows together, notably the Pleasures of Fiber Faire, a fiber show in Pleasureville, Kentucky.

People looking to expand their fiber collection can buy her hand-spun, hand-dyed art yarns.

Catherine Tingey, an attendee of the festival, said she just moved to Kentucky after living in Los Angeles for 20 years.

As a new resident of the area, she is in “exploration mode,” she said.

“There’s a strong, at least for me as an outsider, sense that people are connected to the land,” Tingey said.

“They’re connected to the animals that live on the land, what the animals produce, [and] the food that comes off the land. It’s just very beautiful; speaks to my heart.”

Parido is currently planning next year’s festival as it is “year-long planning process.”

“As soon as we’re done here we’ll take a week to catch our breath and then we reassess the festival next week ... and then we begin planning immediately for the next festival,” Parido said.

The festival will return to Masterson Station Park May 17-18, 2025.