Globally-minded locals flock to this year’s Fair Trade Holiday Festival

Miguel Paz of Misti International organizes his alpaca and alpaca blend yarns. (Becca Radix/Madison Commons)

This past weekend saw Madison’s 19th annual Fair Trade Holiday Festival, a market with goods whose origins span the globe and whose revenues go toward various human rights and social justice causes.

While the wares came from countries around the world, the crowd in attendance was primarily a local one.

Two hours into the fair, event coordinator Samina Kazim of Just Coffee Cooperative said she had already counted 1,500 people walking through the doors. 

“That’s a really great response to something like this. It gives us hope that people care,” Kazim said. “It definitely shows how there is this greater will to do good internationally, as opposed to just locally. And I think that’s a great thing about Madison, it just shows the care for the world as opposed to just what’s happening around, in front of your face.”

Just Coffee sold products, as well as sponsors of the 19th annual event. (Becca Radix/Madison Commons)

The causes supported were as diverse as the goods themselves, ranging from promoting women’s education or ensuring safe and fair working conditions for marginalized artisans and farmers around the globe to ending human trafficking. 

Jenna Hershberger represented Beacon of Hope, a Kenyan-run non-profit that gives women affected by HIV and AIDS employment crafting rugs and textiles, and Hope United, a non-profit partner of Beacon of Hope founded locally by Hershberger’s mother and cousin. She felt shoppers were there to support the greater good of the international community, not just to buy Christmas presents. 

“Once they [shoppers] hear the stories behind things, they are more likely to buy something which I think is a cool reflection on what the people of Madison care about, which is more than just things but also the people behind them,” Hershberger said.

Socially responsible holiday shoppers were able to browse goods carried by the 45 Fair Trade Federation-certified vendors in attendance — many of whom have personal relationships to the artisans they work with and the goods they sell.

Sales of Heart of the Sky Fair Trade textiles support Guatemalan women. (Becca Radix/Madison Commons)

Heart of the Sky Fair Trade, owned and operated by Melinda Van Slyke, started out of Van Slyke’s work in Guatemala as a human rights observer. She lived in the country in the late 1990’s, and what started as bringing back gifts made by Guatemalan artists for family and friends has turned into a functioning fair trade business. 

“Putting money into Guatemalan women’s hands, that’s been the key part for me because my main area of focus is to get money to Guatemala in a sustainable way and this is a very good means of doing that,” Van Slyke said.

Lisa Murray Depaz and her husband Miguel Paz, first-time Fair Trade Festival vendors, fourth generation Peruvian alpaca ranchers and owners of Misti International Inc., sell alpaca wool from their ranches in Peru which is crafted and hand-dyed at their studio in Arequipa, Peru.

The fair allowed the couple to bring their business to Madison, Lisa’s hometown and a place she says really understands the fair trade movement.

“It’s a tremendous response because of, I think, the individual consciousness of Madison residents. I think people who live in Dane County understand the meaning of fair trade, and I think they appreciate it,” Murray Depaz said.

The Fair Trade Festival is a long-standing tradition in Madison, and one Kazim thinks is a good way for globally-minded Madisonians to support the global good.

“We only really deal with first world problems, and there is so much more going on than that. I think that the fair trade festival really helps bring to light those things and how we as a community here can help with those in need elsewhere,” she said.

A wide variety of Fair Trade clothing were among the items sold by the 45 vendors. (Becca Radix/Madison Commons)