Kate Repola, director of Main Street Vermilion, said that her organization has unofficially dubbed Vermilion as the driftwood capitol of the world. With so much driftwood coming to the shores of Lake Erie, Vermilion residents have gotten creative. This year marked Main Street Vermilion’s fifth ‘All Washed Up’ driftwood art festival.
The art gallery’s offerings were made nearly entirely of driftwood from the town’s numerous beaches, Repola said. “We are the self-proclaimed driftwood capitol of the world,” Repola said. “We thought we are pretty much guaranteed that title.
We have some of the most beautiful beaches on the shores of Lake Erie...
And we have beautiful driftwood, especially after a storm.” The festival has grown steadily over the past five years, according to Repola. The annual festival’s marquee event, the driftwood art competition, brought in artists of all skill levels for four different competitive levels this year, she said.
“Every year, we’ve grown a little bit,” Repola said. “We’ve kind of added to it. The base of the day is the driftwood art competition, and then in addition to that, we have kids activities.
.. (And) wealways have the Lorain County Woodcarvers here, showing their talents.
” In addition to the competition portion, this year’s driftwood festival brought some vendors to Vermilion, Repola explained. The 2024 edition of the festival allowed driftwood artists to sell their wares to promote the downtown shopping asp.