2024 Co-op Fest Wrap Up

In September we went BIG with our first annual Co-op Fest! Cooperatives from across Buffalo and WNY joined together to make this end-of-summer celebration a blast, treating attendees to food, drink, games, merch, music, and the magic of a cooperative solidarity economy. The event provided an opportunity to expose local co-ops to new customers, a celebratory atmosphere for co-op members to mix and mingle, and introduced well over 100 community members to cooperative businesses in their neighborhoods.

Thank you to all of the vendors, sponsors, volunteers, and most of all the guests for making the event a success! We could not have done it without you.

From the start, the vibes were immaculate with guests enjoying samples from Lexington Co-op Markets and Extra Extra Pizza, baked goods from BreadHive, and cookies and cacao from The Healing Grounds. The BloodThirsty Vegans brought the jams, getting the crowd dancing and energized. Ecos Cooperative and Farmer Pirates Compost shared their knowledge about our ecosystem, while Urban Roots and Good Neighbors Credit Union shared how to become a member of their co-op!

Kids Korner with The Foundry was a hit, with face painting and crafts for kids of all ages and kids at heart. There was fun for everyone with lawn games throughout the space. Perhaps you played with the giant jenga or tried your luck at the football toss?

In addition to featuring local cooperatives, we wanted to include other aspects of the Solidarity Economy at Co-op Fest. We are pleased that we had strong showings from The Tool Library, Transcend Nickel City, Colored Girls Bike Too, Nickel City Housing Cooperative, and PUSH Buffalo. We hope you took the time to get to know these projects and their missions a bit better.

Miller and the Other Sinners closed out the night with some hard-hitting sounds. Many thanks to Tiny Thai for stopping by with their delicious food, thank you to Savage Winery and Autark Brewhouse for providing the adult beverages, and of course so much appreciation to Five Points Bakery for allowing us to use their space! We are already looking forward to next year’s Co-op Fest and hope you are too.