Minneapolis brewery steps in to help vendors after Holidazzle cancellation

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - After the Holidazzle event was canceled this year due to a lack of funding, local vendors started asking how they were going to make up for the lost revenue. So, a Minneapolis brewery stepped in to provide a space for them.

Thursday kicked off the first night of A Dose of Minni Dazzle. With holiday music to set the mood, Fulton Brewing right by Target Field is hoping the four-day event will spread some holiday cheer and fill the void left when the Minneapolis Downtown Council canceled Holidazzle, a popular holiday festival in Loring Park.

"Holidazzle was canceled on pretty short notice," said Eddie Phillips from Boom Island Woodworking. "It was a very difficult time because as a small independent artisan, I make a significant amount of my annual income during the holiday period."

Phillips said the cancelation in October left him scrambling to find a place to sell his woodworking designs, but pretty much every other market was full.

"Fulton Brewing had been one of the [Holidazzle] beer sponsors for the last eight years," Jill Drum, the taproom general manager at Fulton Brewing, explained.

So, Drum started reaching out to vendors and performers who were scheduled to appear at Holidazzle, asking them if they'd like to use the taproom space to sell their handmade designs.

"Being Minnesota made and Minneapolis made is really a part of who we are at Fulton and really a part of what these vendors are too," she said. "Opening up a new market space for them to be a part of, I think, was really important and then, this is just a great different audience, too."

The four-day Minni Dazzle has between 25 and 30 vendors, everything from woodworking and art to cocktail mixes and other items that would make great gifts, plus visits with Santa and an appearance from the Twin Cities Trapeze.

Holidazzle event organizers said they plan to bring their event back downtown next year.