My Time at Vintage Fest

I recently attended an event in Omaha called Vintage Fest. My friends wanted to go, so we made the hour-long drive with high hopes. None of us were exactly sure what to expect. The advertisements for the event were spread around a lot on social media. Many of you probably saw them or skipped past without realizing. The prospect of an event going on in Nebraska was kind of exciting. The ads I saw showed people playing music outside surrounded by tables of old clothes. I was planning on going alone, even if only to write an article about it and maybe find some cheap clothes. When my friends approached me for transportation, I was happy to provide.

I will admit that I was a little underwhelmed. Vintage Fest is a Sam’s Club-sized warehouse where lots of individual Etsy stores become physical for one day only. The clothes were not cheap, at least in my opinion. Many shirts were going for $300 or more. The music was good, but not live. What I can attest to is the age of the clothing. There was a distinct smell of years on everything. It was neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

All of the people that I interacted with were very nice. Another customer noticed my St. Louis Cardinals shirt and told me where to find even more Cardinals memorabilia. Sadly, St. Louis is such a popular brand that all of the clothing was wildly unaffordable. I appreciated the community that this event was able to summon. Many people only heard about this scrolling on their phones, but they all seemed to have a little something in common.

For all of the bad press that the internet gets, I’d like to say something nice about it. If my friends and I weren’t mindlessly scrolling and allowing our brains to be zapped by quick flashes of advertisements, we probably wouldn’t have spent so much time together that day. Perhaps that many like-minded people would never have found each other. For every hate-filled and destructive online community, there are a lot of regular or even fun places to be.

On the drive back, we all reflected a vague kind of disappointment that was ultimately trumped by the nice time we had. The distance between Omaha and Lincoln is surprisingly pleasant, especially in the fall. I recommend keeping Vintage Fest in mind for next year.

By Luke Morris