BLACKSBURG, Va. – Another year of Steppin’ Out is about to kick off in downtown Blacksburg.
With vendors lining the streets in the heart of town, the 42nd annual two-day event starts Friday at 10 a.m.
“We have a little bit of everything,” said Amelia Tuckwiller, event coordinator for Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. “We have pottery, jewelry, metalwork, leather, glass blowing — someone’s bringing their blacksmith.”
As one of the most popular events held in the New River Valley, one long-time vendor said Steppin’ Out can help a business.
“It’s like a whole gathering of exposures to your business,” said Judy Ruggles, vendor for Blacksburg Master Choral.
It also gives some organizations a chance to get out into the community.
“For a non-profit, it is a wonderful time to relax and to just talk to people,” said Ruggles.
She said that she has been coming to Steppin’ Out since the early 2000s.
“When I first started coming out it was because a friend of mine, he was a local author had a booth,” said Ruggles. “He’s still local but he has stopped coming and I said well this is just too much fun.”
Ruggles is not the only one benefitting from Steppin’ Out. Rebekkah Alexander at Nice Dreams in downtown Blacksburg says Steppin’ Out is one of their favorite weekends of the year.
“It is absolutely the biggest day of the year, we have so many people from all over the place coming in and seeing what we have,” said Alexander. “It’s actually one of our most exciting days of the year.”
She said they work with the vendor outside their store so they can both benefit from all the people walking the streets.
“We usually do a thing with the booth that sets up in front of us too where we will have a little bit of their stuff inside as well,” said Alexander. “So, they’ll come inside, see their stuff, they’ll send people inside, we’ll send people back outside and everything. It’s so much fun too.”