January 18, 2025
By Dale Borchardt
Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025)
The Melbourne Arts and Craft Expo, being held at Wickham Park in Melbourne,e Florida, is a place of wonder. Vendors from different places come to show off their skills and sell the art creations made with their painstaking work. From crocheters to portrait painters, rs the show brings in top talent.
Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025)
After the start of a quiet morning on Sunday, the show opened at 9 am with a slow but steady customer base starting to trickle in. As a vendor, an early morning is almost guaranteed. Open your canopy, set up your wares, and wait for the first patrons.
Many Vendors of different calipers attend this market. Some even demonstrate the art that they are so passionate about. With the show starting off with a very successful day on Saturday, today was looking like another great day.
Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025), Landscape by Hannah’s Gardens. Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025) Scenic Scenery Photography
Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025), Artist Michael Love. Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025) OnSkyky Designs.
As the crowd continued to grow larger, it seemed like another successful day in this beautiful park.
Picture by Dale Borchardt (2025)
Around 11 a,m the first of the wind picked up. Show organizers, vendors, rs and customers alike paid no attention to this as it is a normal thing along the Florida Space Coast. It was also forecast to have higher-than-normal winds starting around noon. With that, the show continued without any problems at that time.
By 12pm The wind had increased a lot,t but still not causing much alarm to the show. However, it did start causing some concern to some vendors who, at this point, were considering closing early. By p.m.,m Mother Nature had started to show her fury, and the wind got to the point that vendors were holding onto their canopies to make sure they were not damaged by the winds. Receiving a report that the wind will pass amongst different vendors.
Just before 2pm, major winds ravaged the showgrounds. Vendors scrambled to collect the goods and take down the remaining canopies while helping the vendors that had received damage.
“After eight years of doing the shows, this is the first time this has ever happened.” (Anonymous vendor)
Causing damage to canopies and products alike. The hardest winds subsided at 2pm, but with this,s the damage was done. Now, according to the National Weather Service, the report of winds reaching 58 mph was recorded in the Melbourne area.
by Dale Borchardt (2025)
At the time of this report, no injuries have been reported, and only minor damage to some of the vendor canopies and product were known.
Independent Journalist, Student at Full Sail University inthe
New Media Journalism Master's Program
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