The Perfect Attraction to Shop N Drop for high schoolers!

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Over the Feb. 22-23 weekend, San José Made (SJMade) hosted its annual Friend Fest; an event with over 250+ vendors that is encouraged to have something for everyone!

Being my third time attending the occasion, this recent visit has topped my previous years. This time around, I attended Day 1 of the event (the 22nd) and personally rated the experience to be a 9.5/10!

Pros:

The first thing I noticed was the organized layout Friend Fest had. The booths were thoughtfully arranged in columns with letters to distinguish which line of booths was which and booth locations were separated through numbers within the columns.

On the far back left (columns A & B), I thought it was considerate for the food vendors and attendees to put the food merchants in one area so it wouldn’t be too troublesome to block the line of traffic within the booths. And because of its convenient location, after you’re done looking around or need a small break, you can stop by these catering booths and take a seat.

Alongside the variety of booths available being the main hitter for me, I also heavily enjoyed its lively environment. It was evident many attendees and artisans thoughtfully planned and dressed in their best outfits for the event. I also loved how many vendors wore their merchandise to better promote their business. With that said, San José Made provided a great way to showcase people’s friendships, relationships and outfits—at the Y2K Glam Shotz photo booth.

Besides the fun photo booth, three other stations were included like bracelet making, keycap making and felt making that were taught by small business creators!

Being an advocate for supporting micro businesses and a lover of handmade crafts, Friend Fest really is the perfect place to satisfy your impulsive shopping needs, but to also get quality, long-lasting mementos or practicalities in comparison to online mass produced items.

Not only is it an event to experience that sort of thrill, Lam Nguyen, a visitor during Friend Fest, highlights its locality and convenience. “This is one of the only times I get to see artists selling their stuff, so it was nice to experience it in our area,” said the Silver Creek High School senior.

Cons:

However, like everything else Friend Fest has a couple of areas that need improvement!

The main criticism I have for this event is the lack of ventilation and the crampedness once South Hall faced peak hours. It was hard not to feel overstimulated when walking among the very humid, dense and loud waves of people. So if you’re someone who gets overwhelmed easily, like me, it may be hard to adjust to. To combat this, I recommend attending early in the morning so you can quickly look around before things get busy and maybe bring a pair of earbuds or plugs to tune out the endless chatter.

Secondly, although the activity booths provided were very innovative and a creative touch, my friends and I didn’t have a great experience with the bracelet making booth because of its limited seating. With that in place, we didn’t have the chance to make bracelets together like planned.

My final comment would be the overpriced food provided at the event. Although I understand as consumers we are paying more for convenience than quality, they had very limited choices, mainly being sandwiches to salads.

Overall, I loved Friend Fest. Super friendly and artsy artisans were present and it was the best place to spend my money where all my interests were put into cute prints, pins, keychains and jewelry.