Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair brings business owners from across the country

It is the heart of the holiday shopping season and the streets of Downtown Tucson are filled to the brim with small businesses of all kinds for this year’s 53rd annual Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair.

Some business owners will travel across the country to Tucson for the annual event. Michael Bonardi, owner of Trittello, traveled 26 hours from Columbus, Ohio to sell his handcrafted jewelry at the street fair for the second year in a row. Bondari’s jewelry is made out of coins and has been in business for 10 years. Normally, he would attend art shows, but says this fair is worth the trip.

“I kind of like when you have a combination of all these different walks of life that come into a show that are here for other things,” Bonardi said. “A lot of times people don't plan on buying my jewelry line, [but] they will come over here and buy something and that's the beauty of jewelry too.”

For others, the annual event is a bit closer to home. Arizonan Collette Ziegler has been coming to the fair for seven years to sell her beeswax candles. Similar to Bonardi, she says she primarily comes back for the people. However, for her, there is added pressure this time.

“This [show] kind of really makes or breaks the whole year for me.”

Despite uncertainty, Ziegler is expecting a successful weekend.

VIEW LARGER Collette Ziegler sources her beeswax from a friend and uses it to create her homemade candles. Ziegler has attended the annual Fourth Avenue Winter Street Fair for seven years.

Paola Rodriguez/Arizona Public Media

Businesses will remain on Fourth Avenue from Friday, Dec. 9 to Sunday. Organizers expect close to 300,000 attendees this year and recommend parking along the Modern Streetcar line and using the Sun Link Streetcar to attend. For more information about businesses, musicians and food vendors, head to the event website.