Photo by kthread

Crafty Bastards, the City Paper’s annual arts and crafts fair, is happening again this year, though it won’t be at the same time, in the same place or for the same price.

Yesterday that City Paper announced a long-awaited new location for the fair, which is set to take place on November 10: Union Market, the new indoor artisan marketplace opening up this weekend at Fifth Street and Neal Place NE in the wholesale district.

As we reported last month, the fair had grown too big for its usual home at the Marie Reed Community Learning Center in Adams Morgan. Amy Austin, the City Paper’s publisher, said that while she was sad to leave Adams Morgan, the various agencies she had to work with to put on the fair had made it difficult for it to remain there.

“It’s very difficult,” she told us. “I tried to do everything by the book, but there’s no handbook for this. We’re always very concerned that we’ll run up against a situation that cannot be understood, that you can’t understand how you can be on the right side of putting on an event. For us, that’s not a good position.”

But in a bigger change from the norm, Crafty Bastards will no longer be free. According to a City Paper press release, admission will cost $10, and VIP tickets that will offer their holder early access will be available for $25. Tickets go on sale at the City Paper’s website on September 28.

Austin said that charging for the fair was a factor of the space, which has more limitations on capacity than Marie Reed did. “There’s capacity problems. One of the ways to limit the capacity is by charging,” she said.