It was a crazy day at the Evanston Lakeshore Art Festival yesterday.
It was another beautiful day until a huge storm rolled through… here’s what it looked like AFTER it blew through and made it out over the Lake.

They announced shortly before 3:00pm that they needed to close the fair and evacuate the park of customers. They all left quickly, and the artists were left to fend for themselves. We were still in our tent as the torrential rains, gale force winds and quarter-sized hail pummeled the fair.

Luckily, we survived the storm with no damage. Just wet & dirty with a lot of pots on the ground… and a green stamped platter that somehow “showed up” in my neighbor’s tent?! Ironically, nothing broke during the storm, but the very first customer AFTER the storm knocked over a miniature vase!

Other artists didn’t fair so well with damaged tents and a couple of them leaving in ambulances. Hopefully the artist directly across from us is doing better after getting a huge gash on his leg from a big piece of broken glass. EMT’s tended to him on-site and he was taken to the hospital for medical attention. There were also tents that collapsed during the storm, like this one of a potter from Seagrove, North Carolina.

During my short drive home from Evanston, there were a lot of trees down.
Uprooted or smashed & broken. Obvious signs that a lot of crazy weather had passed through!

Special thanks to everyone who helped out during the aftermath…
and those who checked in to make sure we were all fine after that crazy storm!!!