Generations of treasures

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey
Reader Staff

Through its many iterations and locations over the past 15 years, the core purpose of Sandpoint’s Funky Junk Antique and Craft Festival has remained intact: to celebrate traditions and, more specifically, the well-loved relics of generations past.

Courtesy photo.

“Tradition is so important to me,” Funky Junk founder and lifetime local Jennifer Wood told the Reader. “I think it is the base of everything we represent: continuing something wonderful and keeping it familiar.”

Funky Junk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 3 and Sunday, Sept. 4 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds, with the show open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. This year’s event theme pays tribute to the old-school department stores of North Idaho. 

Funky Junk organizers are teaming up with the Bonner County Museum to make it happen, with the Museum Guild selling goods from its downtown gift shop, including Bonner County-themed merchandise as well as vintage and handcrafted items.

Wood said this year’s Funky Junk is the biggest show yet, expected to fill “every inch” of the fairgrounds’ main exhibition building. The event will feature mostly vintage vendors, she said, along with artisans slinging candles, jewelry and more. There will also be food and drink — including beer, wine, cocktails and coffee — for purchase, and live music from Bridges Home on Saturday and Dirk Swartz on Sunday.

“The community feel that we create with Funky Junk is the same I grew up with in Sandpoint, whether at the fair, the Catholic Church dinners [or] community gatherings at a grange,” Wood said. “It is the backbone of the show and I’m honored to be able to help bring that together every year, as so much in our county seems to be changing.”

Wood is someone who seeks out ties between the past and present in her everyday life — something exemplified by how she wears her grandmother’s apron.

“It is the same one she wore for decades,” Wood said. “She has been gone for 20 years this year, but when I wear that apron, I still feel her. I still remember how she kneaded bread, how she listened to her program on the transistor radio, and I’m there in her kitchen and she in mine, for a moment.”  

Wood said she’s seen Funky Junk serve as the same kind of conduit for customers, who she hears say things like, “we had this as a kid,” “my grandpa had one of these” or “I’m so happy to have finally found this,” as they shop the event.

“I love when I see an old wool hunting jacket, perhaps once worn by one of the old loggers here, now being cherished and sported by a proud 20-something,” she said, “[or] maybe a Pyrex bowl that once served the prize-winning potato salad at every church potluck, now being used by younger hands, just learning how to cook. 

“Keeping the previous generations with us — a legacy if you will — just a little bit at a time,” is possible by cherishing those past treasures, Wood said, adding later: “But even more than the material items, I see multi-generational Bonner County residents mingle at the show with new folks, enjoying the music together, maybe telling the story of the big winter of ’69 when asked, ‘Does it really snow much here?’”

As much as tradition is a guiding principle for Funky Junk, the event itself has morphed into its own.

“I see a tradition that has blossomed with Funky Junk now, as my son turned 12 this year and does not know life — let alone Sandpoint — without Funky Junk,” Wood said.

Funky Junk Antique and Craft Festival • Saturday, Sept. 3 and Sunday, Sept. 4; 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; $5 admission, those 12 and under get in FREE. Bonner County Fairgrounds, 4203 N. Boyer Ave., funkyjunkantiqueshow.com.