She saved $24,000 to launch a craft festival in an old Joann store: 'This is my dream come true'
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- Lauren Tetef, a 40-year-old events producer and FIDM graduate, is hosting Open House Creative Fest on June 27-28 inside a former Joann fabric store at the Del Amo Fashion Center mall in Torrance, California, with free admission to shop roughly 25 vendors.
- Tetef saved roughly $24,000 in a few months after being laid off in August 2025 from a corporate marketing job at an import-heavy business she says was impacted by the Trump administration's tariff policy, living on severance and her husband's income while taking on events clients.
- Joann announced in February 2025 it would close all of its nearly 800 fabric and craft stores after failing to find a buyer, and Tetef is paying $3,000 in rent plus a $1,000 security deposit for one month in the Torrance space, plus several thousand more on cleaning, construction, decor, and supplies.
- The festival has drawn nearly 500 RSVPs across Eventbrite and Partiful and 70 pre-sale activity passport purchases, with passports starting at $40 granting access to vendor-led workshops like dried-flower card-making and upcycled keychain crafting.
- Tetef previously founded Flourish Locally, a networking and workshop business for small businesses, and describes Open House Creative Fest as the culmination of her career in events production.
Why it matters: Tetef's $24,000 self-funded festival reanimates one of Joann's roughly 800 shuttered locations as a brick-and-mortar hub for 25 small craft vendors at a moment when hobbyists lost a nationwide retail anchor. Her pivot — channeling post-layoff savings and severance into a community-driven retail experiment — illustrates how displaced corporate workers are bootstrapping micro-ventures in the gaps left by retail contraction.
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