Public Market returns and so do crowds

The Juneau Public Market is back for its 34th consecutive year.

If past attendance records are any indication, as many as 10,000 Juneau residents will peruse the dozens of booths set up in Centennial Hall before the market closes Sunday. Based on the ticket line, which snaked out the door and around the building Friday afternoon, that number might be even higher.

“It can be pretty hectic in the first few hours,” said Peter Metcalfe, who started the market in 1983 and has been organizing it each year since.

Few, if any, Juneau residents other than Metcalfe can say they’ve been to the holiday market every year. During the past few decades, Metcalfe has developed an “encyclopedic knowledge of Public Market.” He shared some of that knowledge on a tour of the market Friday afternoon.

Over the years, he estimates that he has worked with about 1,800 different vendors. This year, about 170 different vendors are participating in the market. Many of those are here for the first time.

Each year, between 25 and 33 percent of the vendors are new to the market, a source of pride for Metcalfe.

“That number is consistent, and it really helps keep things fresh here,” he said.

[PHOTOS: A slideshow of Public Market 2016]

Jenny and Gary Sedor, a married couple from Anchorage, run the Alaska Wooden Spoon Company, a virgin vendor at Public Market. Neither of the Sedors had ever been to Juneau before this week.

They sell handmade wooden cooking spoons crafted using Swedish-style “axe-and-knife carving,” as Gary Sedor described it.

The Sedors’ signature ware is the “skillet spoon”, an invention of their own. It’s a spoon with a flattened edge that can hug the surface of a skillet, making for easier cooking.

Standing in the middle of Centennial Hall’s bustling ballroom, Metcalfe was constantly at work putting out small fires. One of the cashboxes at the ticket window was full, and he made a couple of quick calls to have somebody take care of it. Seconds later, he pulled a microphone — connected to the ballroom’s sound system — from his pocket. He used it to announce that a small boy needed help finding his parents.

“It’s just another day at Public Market,” Metcalfe said.

He started working damage control before the market even began. Metcalfe started planning the event in early July, but every year, he has to deal with last-minute vendor cancellations. This year, there were three, all of which were due to medical emergencies.

Metcalfe doesn’t see these “withdrawals,” as he calls them, as a problem. Instead he sees them as an opportunity. He always keeps a waitlist of vendors at the ready to fill any holes left by cancellations.

“Every withdrawal solves a problem,” he said. “There’s always somebody else wanting to get in. People really want to be here.”

M.R.S. Jewelry was one vendor that benefited from a cancellation this year. Three seventh-grade girls — Molly Brocious, Ruchi Haight and Solveig Wolter — run the business. The young jewelers, who make and sell primarily earrings, were bumped up to a bigger booth after a last-minute cancellation left an opening.

The girls’ booth was popular among shoppers Friday, which Brocious, 12, was quite happy about.

“My favorite thing is showing people what we are capable of,” she said.

If Metcalfe has favorite vendors, he wouldn’t disclose who they were. He said he doesn’t like to compare the vendors because they all bring something different to the market.

“I try not to judge vendors by my own standards,” he said. “If I did, it would just be a bunch of fishing, hiking and hunting gear because that’s what interests me.”

One of the more eclectic vendors at the market is Mrs. Shehawk, of Haines. Mrs. Shehawk — known to most as Melina Shields — has participated in Public Market before, but she’s back this year for the first time after a 10-year hiatus. She brought the work of several other Haines artists with her in addition to the earrings and necklaces she makes.

Two items in particular in her booth stood out above the rest: her “canimals” and several pairs of cashmere baby pants. She has turned food cans into what look like mounted game trophies. An old soup can, for example, became a moose head. The baby pants are the work of another Haines artist who makes them out of recycled sweaters.

The market will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and admission costs $7.

“It’s the most fun you can have without drinking, and I used to own a bar, so I would know,” Metcalfe said.