Our remaining 2025 makers markets will give you a glimpse into next year’s plan
Ralphie Packard, an F1 Mini Aussie Doodle, has become a makers market ambassador. He’ll make another official visit Nov. 16.
One of the applicants to our Oct. 19 makers market is a talented creator of greeting cards and gifts who has not previously participated in our monthly show.
We were disappointed when she notified us in August that she was no longer available. But when we looked at the date of her application, we realized that her ultimate decision was really our fault.
“You applied Jan. 3,” we told her, “which is really too long of a wait from a vendor's perspective.” We apologized.
It’s one of many lessons we have learned in a year already full of them. With three of 10 scheduled shows yet to come, we have a pretty good idea of the significant changes we plan to make to Makers at the Museum in 2026.
More collaboration
We opened our store at the Hershey History Center in June 2024 and introduced the makers market that July as a way to provide opportunities to makers and bring customers to the property.
We pulled off four more shows through November before embarking on the 2025 season in February. Every show has taught us something, and we continuously look for ways to improve.
If you’ve been to our shows this summer, then you’ve seen glimpses of where we’re evolving to.
July announced the arrival of greater collaboration as it incorporated some of our neighbors: Wild + Free Power Yoga, which offered a free pre-show community yoga class, and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers on horseback who mingled with guests. Ralphie Packard, an F1 Mini Aussie Doodle and local social media celebrity, rounded out our guest list.
For August, we offered free children’s activities from our friends at Splat family art studio in Hershey, Sleepy Kitty Facepainting in Hershey, and DePlantis, a Harrisburg plant grower.
For September, we’re working on an ice hockey theme, which will include a visit by Cubby, the mascot of the Hershey Cubs junior team. We’ll also draw attention to the history center museum’s Hershey Bears permanent exhibit.
In October, the talented John Rossey will become our first live music act.
Ralphie Packard will be back in November. Besides our food truck (Nano Burger this time), we’ll welcome Hitch Coffee.
We’re seeking more collaboration to flesh out the shows and give people added reasons to come and stay for a while (and Stay for a while).
Six shows in 2026
But it’s not just about what we’re adding. We’re also going to be subtracting: namely, the number of shows.
Ten is just too many. It required us to be inside the history center’s community room in February, March and April (some vendors were outside on the patio in April, too). It’s lovely space, but it’s in the back of the building, hence not visible to passing traffic.
Pulling off 10 shows wouldn’t be such a big challenge if we had the same vendors each time. But we want to keep the shows fresh, and vendors have many other shows from which to choose, many of them more established than ours.
That means that we need many applicants for a 10-show season. We had such a good response when we started accepting applicants in early January that I had a false sense of security about the year.
But we accepted vendors over time, focusing month to month. That led, in part, to the situation with the vendor we described in the opening of this post.
And then there’s the weather. After two turns through July and August, we don’t want a third. It’s just too hot.
Our plan is to divide the year into two halves — and try to eliminate the weather extremes of winter and summer. We’ll release the vendor application twice: in January for the April, May and June shows, and sometime in spring for the September, October and November shows.
All shows will be on the front lawn, taking advantage of the space and visibility and making it an easier message to convey to shoppers.
Vendors won’t go months without a response. And we’ll try to lock them in before they commit to other shows.
Of course, our primary focus now is the three remaining 2025 shows. We want to make them as successful as possible and build momentum heading into 2026.
It’s a certainty that we’ll continue to learn things this year that will make for an even better Makers at the Museum in the new year.