East Lyme — An annual summer staple of East Lyme’s downtown, this past weekend's 59th annual Niantic Arts & Crafts Show once again attracted thousands of visitors who celebrated this quaint and relaxing showcase for unique arts and crafts.

With more than 150 vendors displaying and selling everything from carved wood canes to handmade pottery, those visiting Sunday's show milled through rows of white tents surrounding Town Hall, trying on tie-dye dresses or buying up art prints depicting quaint shoreline scenes.

For Maureen Boyle-Henninger of West Hartford, who owns a summer home in the nearby Giants Neck Heights neighborhood, the art show is a summer tradition she said she can never miss. This year, she came to the show with her longtime friend Dwayne Gilbert of Willington, who also owns a summer home in Giants Neck Heights neighborhood.

“We come to this every summer, every summer,” Boyle-Henninger said, while detailing her favorite vendors such as the New York-based tie-dye dress maker North Star Design, and now, Diana Wythe Tyler, a Hebron artist who sells prints depicting familiar scenes such as the Niantic River and the Mystic drawbridge. “We just love the local spots (she depicts), it just stands out. I couldn’t help but get three, and he got three, too.”

The show is organized and sponsored by the Niantic Lions. All proceeds, which include money made from the show's food court and fees vendors pay to participate, help fund the Lions' charitable efforts including money for local organizations, said Craig Woody, who chairs the committee that organizes the show.

“Why do we do this? We do this because the community needs this,” Woody said. “The money goes back into the community. This is giving something back to this community.”

In the past, Woody said, the Lions group has used show proceeds to help pay for various local philanthropic causes, such as erecting the town green gazebo, as well as the McCook Point Park band shell.

More than that, though, Woody said, the show “brings a lot of people from out of the area into the area."

“People come here and then say, ‘Wow, this is a neat place.’ And then they come back," Woody said. "There’s a lot of repeat visitors at this show, and it brings people back to Niantic every summer and throughout the summer, as well.”

Woody said the show attracts anywhere from 8,000 to 15,000 people to Niantic annually, depending on the weather, and generates revenue for local businesses.

“This is a pure arts and crafts show. We do not have Anderson Windows, we don’t have Tupperware,” Woody said. “(The people who come to this) really appreciate not having to put up with someone trying to hand them brochures. They’re not being hammered with that kind of stuff. It’s not commercial. And we work very hard to keep it that way.”

While looking at some brightly colored scarves, Nancy Grant of New London agreed, saying that the show’s quaint quality makes for an enjoyable experience. 

“This show is larger than what it used to be,” Grant said.

But compared to the annual Mystic Outdoor Art Festival, which draws upwards of 85,000 visitors, Grant said the Niantic show, which showcases many of the same artists, felt more “homey” and “less hectic and frantic.”

“This is a really nice location, with local people stopping by,” Grant said. “I would definitely recommend it.”

m.biekert@theday.com