Biannual outdoor festival TreasureFest moves to San Rafael in time for 10-year anniversary
To bring in extra cash, Novato-based couple Angie and Charles Ansanelli a decade ago launched Treasure Island Flea, a two-day outdoor market on the island in San Francisco Bay.
The event lured 60 exhibitors and about 18,000 shoppers to its May 2011 grand opening. Over the years, the couple attracted thousands of shoppers once a month until deciding to revamp the event and change its location.
Then COVID-19 broke. The Ansanellis, who had planned a new format and location for the event, were forced to cancel their May 2020 market. Now the festival is back for its 10-year anniversary, at San Rafael’s Marin Center, on Saturday, Sept. 18, and Sunday, Sept. 19.
“After a decade, we wanted to change that model to be grander where the experience was something even more unique and special for the shoppers and for the exhibitors and less frequent,” Charles Ansanelli said. “So we had planned to have it biannually I think part also for our own sanity.”
Without traditional day jobs, the Ansanellis have dedicated all of their time to TreasureFest. Angie Ansanelli scouts unusual vendors and chefs in the Bay Area while Charles Ansanelli looks for hidden gems to add to the experience including this year’s Burning Man installation and live painting stations.
How TreasureFest got its start
One of those vendors is Bay Area resident Steve Lozoya, one of TreasureFest’s original exhibitors. He started his funky pop art business Plan B around the same time as the budding festival’s grand opening.
Lozoya said the inital event resembled a flea market, showcasing traditional garage items, arts and crafts, indie items and food trucks. But over time it evolved for shoppers and vendors, morphing into TreasureFest in 2016.
“It went from more of a market to an event to a festival,” Lozoya said. “They started bringing in bars, which they didn’t have at the beginning, they start bringing in music, which was incredible and some of the best food trucks in the Bay Area.”
But when TreasureFest was forced to cancel its reopening in May 2020 due to the virus, Lozoya lost his main source of income.
“It was very devastating to me,” Lozoya said. “I lost probably I would say conservatively a third of my revenue.”
Now he and others are looking forward to the market’s return.
The event’s new look is something that Charles Ansanelli could only dream of when he started piecing his business together.
With a background of reselling goods at festivals throughout New York, he wanted to create a different sort of marketplace with artists, merchants selling antique and vintage goods, product upcyclists, food and more.
Ansanelli said he initially received pushback from vendors who weren’t interested in the concept.
“It was pulling teeth,” he said. “Now, they always come to me and say this was the best show we’ve ever done ... so it’s all very humbling, it’s all very cool, it’s all very eclectic and I guess that’s the keyword.”
Just as the event was gaining traction, COVID-19 hit and the couple had no choice but to wait out the storm at home for a year and a half.
The couple did what most people did during quarantine, switching to virtual interaction. The duo hosted a free online market event that attracted 10,000 people on the same dates as the original reopening of the festival in 2020.
“At that time I was even thinking this is kind of cool maybe we should go deeper into this ... but I think we all want to get back to being physically out there, physically being able to socialize,” Charles Ansanelli said.
What to expect at this year’s TreasureFest
The 10-year anniversary of TreasureFest is set to attract 30,000 people and more than 250 exhibitors offering furniture, clothes, art and jewelry. The festival will also include food from around the world, live music and art and alcoholic beverages.
Shoppers are not attending “because they need something more, they’re there because they’re gonna find some cool stuff and then they just have to have it,” Angie Ansanelli said.
The dog-friendly, family-friendly biannual festival is set to kick off Saturday, Sept. 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“The exhibitors that we bring into our show are the kind that you don’t see around because if you go to a fair, you typically see the guy selling hammocks and candles and the same old stuff,” Charles Ansanelli said. “These people are all upcyclists, they are artists, they are one of a kind.”
IF YOU GO
When: Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: The Marin Center, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael