A craft and vendor fair was held in the New Ulm City parking lot on 2nd North Saturday.

NEW ULM — A craft and vendor fair was held in the New Ulm City parking lot on 2nd North Saturday.

James Haviland and Heather Ellanson have been organizing these fairs in New Ulm for the last five years. Recently, they began using the City Hall Parking lot to host the fair. Haviland said it is one of the best locations because everyone driving past on Broadway will see it.

The craft fair featured a variety of items from jewelry and wood crafts to board games and facemasks.

The COVID pandemic has made open aircraft fairs a popular alternative to in-store shopping. One of the most sought after items are the facemasks. Many of the vendors were selling a variation of facemasks. Ellanson said at first she was making masks for donations, but people offered to pay. Ellanson estimates she has made around 1,600 masks. There is a demand for fashionable masks.

“If people have to wear them, we want them to be fun,” she said.

Carol Laitinen was selling an item to keep families busy. Her board self-made board game “Synapse” was eye-catching. The game required teams of two to get a third player to guess a mystery word by building a sentence one word at a time. The quicker the third player guesses, the more points awarded.

Jewelry remained one of the most popular items at the craft fair. Tasha Winterfeld of Twinters Jewelry said natural stones were the most popular, though she hopes the dragon necklaces will bring in fans.

The craft and vendor fair will return to the City Hall parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12.