Find yourself at trades fair over Labour Day weekend

THE ever-popular Lost Trades Fair is back throughout the Labour Day long weekend, promising the usual eclectic collection of makers, artisans, tradespeople and craftspeople – some of whom have been practising their enterprise for over sixty years.

Glen Rundell, traditional Windsor chairmaker and festival co-founder, said Lost Trades was first held in Kyneton, where it was noticed there was a high concentration of artisans of all walks of life.

“I saw a lot of other traditional tradespeople who were in the same boat (as me), practising a seldom practised craft for which there was no longer any membership body to support them,” he said

“Individually they had no voice, so we thought it would be wonderful to have a guild or an association of seldom practised trades and crafts.

“Eventually, we had enough members to run a fair.”

The first event had 7500 attend, the second 15,000 and, as Rundell explained, organisers outgrew the racetrack in Kyneton and moved it to Bendigo.

He said if you want to see how things have been created in some cases for millennia, there isn’t anything that comes close to what can be gained from spending a couple of days at the fair.

“It really is the place for inspiration and to see how things are made with passion, due care and attention, and made with a vision to be heirloom quality products,” he said

The Lost Trades Fair takes place from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 March at the Bendigo Racecourse.

A free shuttle service will run to and from the Bendigo train station between 9.30am and 4.30pm all weekend.

Get tickets via trybooking.com/events/landing/1283799.